T£rs? 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER 
WAR CONDITIONS 



COMPLETE REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS 

of the 

NATIONAL CONFERENCE 

held under the auspices of the 

WESTERN EFFICIENCY SOCIETY 

and 

THE SOCIETY OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS 



March 27, 28 and 29, 1918 
CHICAGO 



\ 



J 5 ?> , 



PROCEEDINGS 



of the 



National Conference 



on 



Labor Problems Under 
War Conditions 

Under the Joint Auspices of 

The Society of Industrial Engineers 

and 

The Western Efficiency Society 

Held at 

HOTEL LA SALLE 
CHICAGO 

' March 27, 28, 21), 1918 



WESTERN EFFICIENCY SOCIETY 

ORGANIZED DECEMBER, 1912 



OFFICERS 1918 

F. A. Carlisle ----- President 
Friedlander-Brady Knitting Mills 

S. E. Stout - - - First Vice-President 

Whiting Foundry Equipment Co. 

John R. Shea - - - Second Vice-President 
Western Electric Company 

George C. Dent - - Secretary-Treasurer 

327 So. LaSalle Street, Chicago 



DIRECTORS 



F. M. Simons, Jr., Chainnan 

L. A. Blue - - - 

A. G. Bryant - 

F. A. Carlisle 

P. H. Myers 

S. M. Ross 

A. B. Segur 

S. E. Stout 

George C. Dent 



Montgomery Ward & Co. 

Allen B. Wrisley Co. 

Joseph T. Ryerson & Son 

Friedlander-Brady Knitting Mills 

J. L. Jacobs & Co. 

The Seng Company 

Johnson Chair Company 

Whiting Foundry Equipment Co. 



ADVISORY COUNCIL 



W. F. Smith 
I. A. Berndt - 
J. F. Henning - 
H. Thorpe Kessler 



(Former Presidents) 

Marshall Field & Co. 



Joseph T. Ryerson & Son 

Vesta Accumulator Company 

Rosenwald & Weil 



F^OMCAflS £7'. f.,>?j. 



,^ov 



9c 



m 



The Society of Industrial Engineers 



ORGANIZED MAY, 1917 



OFFICERS 1917 

Captain Joseph W. Roe 

Irving A. Berndt - - - - 

327 So. LaSalle Street, Chicago 



President 
Secretary 



F. C. SCHWEDTMAN - - - - TREASURER 

National City Bank, New York City 



DIRECTORS 

Major Chas. Buxton Going 
Irving A. Berndt . - - 
Harrington Emerson - 
Major Frank B. Gilbreth - 
Harry A. Hope - - . 

W. E. HOTCHKISS - 

H. T. Kessler 
Dexter S. Kimball 
C. E. Knoeppel - 
Captain Harry F. Porter 
Captain Joseph W. Roe - 
Lieut. Edward L. Ryerson, Jr. 
Edwin C. Shaw 
Herman Schneider 
f. c. schwedtman 



Washington, D. C. 

Chicago 

New York City 

Providence, R. I. 

New York City 

Minneapolis, Minn. 

Chicago 

Ithaca, N. Y. 

New York City 

New York City 

Washington, D. C. 

Chicago 

Akron, Ohio 

Cincinnati, Ohio 

New York City 



\- 



JOINT CONFERENCE COMMITTEE 

FOR THE SOCIETY OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERS 

I. A. Berndt, Chairman 
K^ERiNGTON Emerson C. E. Knoeppel 

John F. Price H. Thorpe Kessler 

L. Ree\'es Goodwin 

FOR THE WESTERN EFFICIENCY SOCIETY 

F. M. Simons, Jr., Chairman 
F. A. C.AJiLISLE A. F. Tre\tr 

W. S. Ford George C. Dent 

P. H. M^TRS A. G. Bryant 



CONTENTS 



Page 

Invocation, Rev. Alfred F. Waldo 7 

Address of Welcome, F. A. Carlisle 8 

''The Purpose of the Conference," Irving A. Berndt 10 

''Labor During and After the War," Harrington Emerson 12 

"Some Things That Women Have Done and Are Doing to Help 

Win the War," Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen 21 

"Conclusions of 1000 Questionnaires on Women in Industry," 

C. E. Knoeppel 28 

"Some Things Women Should Do to Help Win the War," Miss 

Florence King 73 

"Labor and Price Stabilization by Voluntary Agreement After the 

War," Barton T. Bean 82 

Round Table Discussion — "Women in Industry" 87 

"Planning, Scheduling and Despatching," W. S. Ford 108 

"Mechanical Aids to Man," A. Russell Bond 113 

"Standardization in Machine Shop Practice and the Training of 

Operators," Ellis F. Muther 118 

"The Relation of the Coal Conservation Movement to the Engineer," 

Joseph H. Harrington 129 

"Maximum Production from Undrafted Labor," Irving A. Berndt. . 133 

"Cutting Out Red Tape," Col. A. D. Kniskern 143 

"Scientific Management a Necessity of Modern Organization," F. M. 

Simons, Jr 152 

Round Table Discussion — "Mechanical Equipment — Its Function in 

Replacing Men." "Men Remaining — Securing Their Maxi- 
mum Production" 159 

"Industrial Stimulation Through War Finance," James A. Davis. . 176 

"Re-Education of Crippled and Disabled Men," Douglas C. McMurtrie 181 

"Business After the War," Willard E. Hotchkiss 183 

"Mending Fragments from France in Canada," Norman A. Hill. . . 189 
"The Shifting of New Man Power to Emergency Production," 

James 0. Craig 191 

"Team Spirit in Industry," Montague Ferry 200 

"Pennsylvania Plan for Meeting After War Conditions," Lew R. 

Palmer 205 

"A Post-Bellum Prophecy," C. E. Knoeppel 218 



OPENING SESSION 

'WOMEN IN INDUSTRY— REPLACING MEN" 

Wednesday Afternoon, March 27, 1918 

Mr. F. A. Carlisle, President Western Efficiency Society, Chairman. 

The meeting was called to order at two o'clock. 

THE CHAIRMAN : As is customary with the meetings of the West- 
em Efficiency Society, we will first join in singing the Star Spangled Ban- 
ner, after which the Rev. Alfred F. Waldo, of Riverside, will deliver the 
invocation. 

The assembly joined in singing the Star Spangled Banner, after which 
the following prayer was offered by Rev. Alfred F. Waldo : 

"Let us pray. This, our Heavenly Father, is Holy Week, and yet we 
know that no good work is too secular to be done in this week, and we re- 
joice and find encouragement and are grateful to Thee for the line intelli- 
gence and the splendid enthusiasm with which the minds of these men and 
women set themselves to work for the solution of the problems of human- 
ity. We perceive in the coincidence between the Holy Weeks, the Holy 
Week of old when Jesus Christ laid down his life for the redemption of the 
world on the cross of Calvary and this week when our brave men and boyy 
in the spirit of the same Christ are laying down their lives freely on that 
western front, we perceive in this a coincidence which is suggestive and 
stimulating. 

"We realize that we are living not only in a time but in a week and 
possibly on a day than which no other day aside from the one upon which 
Christ died has been more fateful in human history, more freighted, per- 
haps, with destiny for the future interests of mankind. And we pray that 
whereas that one of old who betrayed Christ did have the good sense after- 
wards to go out and hang himself, this traitor by which civilization is be- 
trayed today, instead of terminating his own meaningless and woeful ex- 
istence utilizes his energies for the murder of others ; for him we pray to 
God that his erroneous and wicked plots may be confuted, and that Thou 
wilt send a divine power into the minds of the rulers of all of our nations 
that are associated for the vanquishment of autocracy and evil, into tho 
minds of our rulers, our generals, our officers. Thou Lord send wisdom thai. 
they may plan boldly and wisely and effectively. 

"And we pray for the men who fight that through faith in Thee Uuy 
may become conscious of a physical and moral and spiritual strengi-h whioli 
IS not their own and yet which becomes their own because they receive it 
and utilize it. And do Thou grant that from out this dreadful maelstrom 



8 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

and catastrophe which appears to us to be nothing but evil may come good 
for our own generation and subsequent generations of mankind. 

"Bless the women and men here assembled in all our deliberations, 
those who plan and those who perform, and gi^ant that unto us and unto 
this great people there may come a gi'eat blessing from heaven through 
Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen." 

THE CHAIRMAN: The inestimable privilege has been accorded me 
to open this great convention with an address of welcome, and while on 
other occasions we have oftentimes started these things off with matters 
of pleasantry, conditions are such today that every man, every woman, in 
whose heart loyalty beats for humanity and for their country need sol- 
emnly to think of the occasion that lies before us. 

Already one hundred thousand men or possibly more have laid down 
their lives on the blood-soaked fields of France, and thank God, one hun- 
dred thousand, yes, ten times one hundred thousand more, stand ready to 
offer the best they have that evil shall be confuted and that libeiiy shall 
reign throughout the earth and that the boasted efficiency of autocracy 
shall give way to the efficiency of liberty where every man has his own 
opportunity to develop, and the lands of the countries of the world are at 
peace and haiTtiony. 

And so today as we have gathered here there lies before us a problem 
such as men in no age have ever had to consider, a problem which means 
not only the victory for right in the present moment but also a problem 
the solution of which shall be felt in the ages that are to come, to untold 
generations ; and by the brains that have been given us and by the science 
that we have developed and by our co-operation and unexampled energy, 
God willing, we shall show the world that the right shall overcome, and 
that peace and hamiony shall once more obtain in the world. 

So we have come together at the present time, not primaiily for the 
advancement of any personal aims, not primarily for any personal aggi'an- 
dizement whatsoever, but that we co-operating together may throw the 
force of our united ability into the crucible which shall biing forfh that 
power that shall overcome evil which threatens the foundations of human- 
ity in the world today. Therefore, my friends gathered together here to- 
day, let us proceed in this convention with that thing in mind. 

We have gathered in our midst here men from the Atlantic seaboard 
to the Pacific coast who have come to join with us in this, and it seems 
symbolic to me that the whole land is being welded together and that out 
of this thing which promised to be a catastrophe shall come that which 
shall be a blessing to mankind. 

Each of us within our owtl circle has the things which he must do, 
each of us has our local problem, but nevertheless underlying these things 
are primary principles, the employment of which shall bring about the 
result we so earnestly desire. 

We find in this land of ours men and women everywhere whose hearts 
are beating enthusiastically, and though it seems at the present moment 
as though the reverse of amis is to be oui' portion, yet we know that be- 
hind those lines that for the last week have stood so heroically, that have 
paid with life's blood for every foot of gi'ound in bloody France, ai^e the 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 9 

men who are finally going to conquer. But they cannot conquer unless be- 
hind the firing line, yes, behind the ocean even, there stand shoulder to 
shoulder men in the various industries who have but one supreme ambition 
in the present moment, and that is to see that every ounce of energy co- 
ordinated shall bring the fruit of victory to those who have fought so long. 

So I say throughout this convention let us keep this thing wholly in 
mind and let us seize upon every fact that is given, upon every hint that 
comes to our ears, material which we can weld into our organizations, that 
where one unit has grown before we shall produce not only two but possi- 
bly ten or even one hundredfold. And this land, a mighty giant, slumber- 
ing yet, I am afraid, and not realizing the clamor of war because it is so far 
away, shall awaken from her lethargy, and grant that it be soon, and 
every man and every woman shall be on the firing line in America as truly 
as our boys are over in France yonder, trying to stem the tide of the bar- 
barian invasion. If we so stand and so co-ordinate and so banish every 
disloyal thought, and help wherever help is possible, we shall achieve those 
aims. 

As I said, it is my privilege to welcome you to our city and to welcome 
you in behalf both of the Western Efficiency Society of Chicago and the 
Industrial Engineers of America, and I hope and trust that the meetings 
which shall ensue shall be the most profitable that you have ever experi- 
enced and that you will be able to return to your homes enthused, and 
knowing not only men in your own locality, not only men in your own state, 
but men in every state and every locality are thinking the same thoughts 
and are striving to do the same things that you are striving for, and that 
the mighty giant, the potential power of America, shall be made manifest, 
and shall overcome the dreadful opposition. 

One other thing. We are so far away it is difficult for us to under- 
stand, but nevertheless shall come to us as it should come to us the neces- 
sity for personal sacrifice, and I speak of these things now that you may 
take them home with you and impress on everyone that it is not enough 
to give of our ideas, not enough to give of our time, but to give of the very 
essence of ourselves, that we may attain this absolutely necessary result. 
In this city of two million and more souls, striving in their way to produce 
the things that are necessary, holding the reserve lines of the mighty 
armies abroad, you will find in the trenches men and women who are giv- 
ing all their time, who are actually giving up all their lives that we may 
be successful in this endeavor, and if we have done nothing more in assem- 
bling men from the East and West and from the North and South than to 
send them back again as messengers to their own section filled with the 
enthusiasm of endeavor and the absolute surety of final victory, we have 
indeed done a great thing. 

We have been successful in getting to attend this convention and ad- 
dress us men and women of note from various sections of the country; 
men and women whose past achievements have proven that they are peo- 
ple who can deliver the goods and will do so on the present occasion. So 
we bid you welcome to our city of Chicago and we bid you welcome to the 
interests of the Western Efficiency Society and of the Industrial Engi- 
neers, and a thousand- times more we bid you to participate with us in 



10 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



those things which shall bring victory, and if we do those things we have 
done well. Let us not forget then the necessity of the hour, let us not for 
one moment forget the battle that is raging with the result as it seems al- 
most in the balance, and let us put our shoulders to the wheel, men and 
women alike, and see that the thing goes through. The criticisms and the 
dallyings and those who would disrupt and those who would hinder, let us 
brush them aside as obstacles to progress and let us see that nothing 
hampers us in our push forward to the enemies' lines, and if we have done 
those things, and if we have gotten the spirit of the occasion we cannot 
help but hold the lines in France, we cannot help but see victory coming 
though the cost be beyond the computation of man ; and when that victory 
comes, blood-bought and dear though it may be beyond our comprehension, 
it shall be such a victory, God granting, that nothing shall occur here- 
after that shall endanger the welfare of the human race. 

You may not agree with all the means, you may think some man is 
falling down on the job, but give him constructive criticism and do not 
alone point out his weaknesses. Stand by him. and not aloof from him, and 
see that the President of our country shall receive the united support of 
America today, that we may overcome and that we may come forth victo- 
riously. 

Once more I welcome you to our midst. May the profit of yourselves 
and ourselves united be such that it has been well worth our time to be 
here, so we can go back home stronger and better men and women for hav- 
ing mingled for a few days, gotten the other point of view, and go back 
again to hold our own position in the home lines and hold until successful 
endeavor shall crown our efforts. I welcome you. 

We are very fortunate indeed to be able to have with us, to bring to 
us the real purposes of the conference, I. A. Bemdt, secretary of the So- 
ciety of Industrial Engineers, who will address you at the present moment. 
Mr. Berndt. (Applause.) 

First I would like to read two quotations. Our President Woodrow 
Wilson has said : 

**It is evident to every thinking man that our industry, on the farms, 
in the shipyards, in the mines, in the factories, must be made more pro- 
lific and more efficient than ever, and that they must be more economically 
managed and better adapted to the particular requirements of our task 
than they have been ; and what I want to say is that the men and the 
women who devote their thought and their energy to these things will be 
serving the country and conducting the fight for peace and freedom just 
as truly and just as effectively as the men on the battlefield or in the 
trenches." 

Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker, has stated : 

"War has become a thing of industry and commerce and business. It 
is no longer Samson with his shield and spear and sword, and David with 
his sling ; it is no longer selected pai*ties representing nations as champions, 
and in physical conflict one with the other, but is the conflict of smoke- 
stacks now; it is the combat of the driving wheel and the engine, and the 
nation or group of nations in a m_odem war which is to prevail is the one 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 11 



which will best be able to co-ordinate and marshal its material, industrial 
and commercial strength against the combination which may be opposed 
to it." 

Were there no other justifications than the above two analyses, they 
alone should offer a reason for this conference. Coming from those two 
men who have been chosen to lead us, inspire and guide us in the present 
war for Democracy, they might easily be interpreted as a suggestion. Yes, 
even a command to us to hold this and many similar conferences and to 
seek to do that which it is our hope to do during the next three days. 

But in addition to all this, every one of us are daily realizing more and 
more that our outstanding problem in the present conflict from the indus- 
trial side is the human factor. I can say very little to emphasize this more 
strongly at the present time ; I know that you feel it. 

A year of war, however, has very clearly emphasized certain, definite 
divisions of this problem woi*th considerable discussion. It has brought 
to our attention certain distinct factors which are troubling manufactur- 
ers, employers, economists, our war leaders and the nation as a whole. 

The two societies sponsoring this conference have recognized these 
factors and problems and it is proposed to discuss them fully, dividing 
them into their various elements. Speakers have been secured who, be- 
cause of intimate contact and through broad capabilities and experience 
are eminently competent to bring before our audiences these problems and 
such solutions as they have found. 

Their papers should serve to open up discussion which it is hoped will 
be participated in by the representative audience present, and these dis- 
cussions will no doubt bring to light the ideas and solutions of many, many 
other men and women whose names should appear on our program but do 
not, either because it has been our misfortune not to know them or be- 
cause the immensity of the subject and the proportionately short time we 
have to devote to it has made it impossible for us to place officially on our 
program all those names which we would like to. However, we are antici- 
pating much from these impromptu discussions and are sincerely expect- 
ing the proceedings of this conference to contain a wealth of constructive 
and instructive matter which should have no little bearing on the progress 
of our industrial betteiTnent during the next year and a gi'eat and distinct 
effect on the manner in which the labor problem is handled during the 
great stress and gradually increasing emergency which will be before us 
and which will continue until this war has been victoriously terminated, 
and ever thereafter. 

As will bo seen in the program, the entire subject has been divided 
into four sections. 

First, consideration is given to the question of women in industry, not 
only because our particular brand of culture still places our women always 
first in our minds and hearts, but because this has seemed to be the most 
immediate problem confronting us at this time. 

Next, consideration is given mechanical equipment and the part it will 
play in helping to solve the labor problem. This is a subject to which a 
complete conference could well be devoted, and time will only pennit us to 
touch upon the more important factors. 



12 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



Following this comes a consideration of the problem of handling the 
men remaining in industry, those men who through force of circumstances 
or because of unfitness are not permitted to shoulder a gun and do or die 
for our beloved country. 

To secure their best services certain precautions are desirable, definite 
policies are advisable and particular practices absolutely essential. These 
will be discussed. 

Finally and with an optimism justified by a sincere faith that our vic- 
tory is not far off we intend to discuss even now as fully as possible in the 
time allotted the readjustments necessary in labor after the war, with a 
sincere hope that we may soon be confronted with this problem and in 
preparation of that time not so far distant when it will be our most imme- 
diate one. 

This then is the field we propose to cover, and it is a large one, but all 
of our efforts and every minute of time and ounce of energy will have its 
full reward if through this conference light is thrown on our labor prob- 
lems and solutions offered which will help in our war production sufficiently 
to bring the war's victorious end even one day closer. 

With this justification back of us and the large field before us, let us 
go forward with the conference and devote ourselves to it without reserva- 
tion knowing that our cause is just, our problem immediate, our services 
desirable and our work worthy because it is performed in the name of and 
for the sake of a Democracy and a country of which we are proud and for 
which even now our boys in France are fighting and dying. 

May our efforts be fruitful and may they serve to bring these same 
boys back to us soon and in an undiminished number. 

THE CHAIRMAN: The next speaker is a man who has devoted 
years of his life to the increasing of efficiency in management, and who 
brings to us today an experience that few may equal and none surpass. I 
refer to Harrington Emerson, consulting industrial engineer and president 
of the Emerson Company, who will speak on "Labor During and After the 
War." It gives me great pleasure to introduce Mr. Emerson. 

MR. HARRINGTON EMERSON: Mr. President, ladies and gentle- 
men of the Western Efficiency Society and the Society of Industrial Engi- 
neers, and guests : There are two points of view that I have always held. 
One is that the principle is of more importance than the detail ; that it is 
impossible to solve details rightly unless they are founded on correct prin- 
ciples. It is, of course, also true that even if principles are correct you 
may go astray on the details. Therefore, in speaking to you this after- 
noon, I shall touch rather on principles than on details. And secondly, a 
point of view that I have always held is that in any questions that come 
up between the employer and the employee it is the employer who is al- 
ways in the wrong, is always at fault. He is the one that ought to know 
how to solve these questions, and not permit them to get into the acute 
stage, and it is to him we should look and not to the employee who has not 
had the same opportunity of study, who has not had the same broad expe- 
rience. 

Let us on this subject try to think clearly. The first question that 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 13 



comes up to me is why should anybody work at all. That is the very first 
question. And then the next point that I shall try to touch on is how can 
anybody be induced to work efficiently. And thirdly, what problems con- 
front the man who wants somebody else to work for him. And finally 
how can we meet the needs of the employer. 

Why should anybody work? There are seven stages in a man's life, 
and in six of them there are no workers. The egg does not work, the 
embryo does not work, the infant does not work, the child does not work ; 
the adolescent moons instead of working; the mature man, the mature 
woman, they have to work and the old man and the old woman they are 
past working. 

Work is thoroughly distasteful to most people who are mature as well 
as to children. Children love to play. I remember one of my cousins 
spending a summer in the mountains of Pennsylvania and she was very 
anxious to get some berries, and so she tried to induce the children to pick 
for her quarts of blueberries and offered them ten cents. It did not inter- 
est the children in the least. Why should they spend their time picking 
blueberries ? Ten cents meant nothing to them ; there was nothing at the 
store that they could buy that they wanted for the ten cents, so they 
shrugged their shoulders and she had to go without her blueberries. I 
remember once in a railroad office in the afternoon about three o'clock I 
happened to hear one of the office girls fairly howl, "Oh, I wish it was five 
o'clock, I want to go home." That was her attitude towards work. 

On that same western railroad on one occasion during a strike we 
hired Indians to come into the roundhouse. Of course, they did not knov/ 
very much about locomotives but the foreman pointed out to them how to 
unscrew the nuts so as to take off a cylinder and to do other work of that 
kind, work that they could well do. The foreman would set them at it, go 
around to some other Indian, and he would come back again before night 
about a certain time, and the Indian was gone. He looked for him and he 
found him outside in the sun lying down and going to sleep. Work had 
become distasteful to him and he didn't know why he should work when 
he did not feel like it. 

Another friend of mine was interested in a mine in Ecuador. It was 
way above the timberline, fifteen thousand feet. They had opened a gold 
mine there, and the only workers were a neighboring ti'ibe of Indians. 
They had set a rate of wages that they thought was sufficient, and the In- 
dians worked two days in the week. They were not getting out enough 
ore to keep the mine going, the overhead charges were running, and tliey 
pondered as to what they should do. Suddenly an idea struck them and 
they cut the wages in half. Then the Indians worked four days. Then it 
occurred to them that they had got on the right track, so they took an- 
other thirty-three per cent cut in the wages, and then the Indians worked 
six days a week. Those Indians were entirely wise. Why should thoy 
work any longer than necessary to satisfy their elementary w^ants? 

When my brother was in the Philippines he was talking to a stevedore 
who was unloading a ship at that time, and the stevedoi^ told him that 
when the ships came in they used to pay these longshoremen to unload a 
ship five cents a day -in gold, ten cents Mexican. He said they paid them 



14 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

off every evening and the longshoremen spent their money and were back 
again the next day and the work got done. When the United States gov- 
ernment came in they considered any such wages as that an iniquity, and 
set the minimum wage for government work at forty cents a day in gold. 
He said, **0f course, we were obliged to follow suit, and now we pay forty 
cents in gold instead of five cents; we pay eight times as much," he said, 
"yesterday I had three hundred and ninety men at work. I told them to 
come back again today, that the ship is still unloaded, and they said, *Si, 
senior'. How many do you suppose were on hand this morning?" He said, 
"just six." He said, "The others will not come back for a week until they 
spend that forty cents." He said that probably the six had lost it in gam- 
bling, and to make up for it some would not be back for two weeks. He 
said, "Why should they come back, they were paid off last night, why 
should they come back and work until the money is gone ?" 

I remember a story of this recent Russian revolution, a man who had 
been traveling there came back and told me that in one of the establish- 
ments there the workmen had taken charge of it and they had appointed 
committees to run the work, and very soon they began to run out of work. 
They went to see the Englishman to whom the factory belonged and they 
said to him, "We seem to have got out of work ; we wish you to come over 
and advise us as to what the trouble is, why we cannot keep the factory 
running." So he went over and sized up the situation, and he said, "I 
will tell you what the trouble is. In the very first room where the first 
job is done those men are up on the committee and so the work is not pre- 
pared, and as long as it is stopped in that particular room it cannot go 
ahead anywhere else." "Well," they said, "we can see that, we understand 
that, they have been on the committee for some time and it is time we took 
them off to put somebody else in there, and we will send them back into 
the room to work." So they told this committee that they would now 
have to go back to work, but they said, those on the committee said, "No, 
not yet. We have been doing very heavy intellectual work and we shall 
have to take a six weeks' rest before we can go back to work in that room." 
So the committee took a six weeks' rest idling, and in the meantime the 
factory remained closed. 

You think perhaps that kind of spirit exists only among the work- 
men. I remember a banker in New York who told me this story. He 
said, "We look around throughout the West and we see some brilliant 
young banker of great promise who is cashier or perhaps vice-president 
of some small national bank in a western city, and we realize that there is 
good timber in him and we call him down to New York. We offer him a 
salary of $2,500 to come down to New York. He thinks that is a great 
thing to be called to New York, and down he comes, perfectly happy on his 
$2,500 salary, and he works sixteen hours a day. The next year he expects 
a larger salary, he expects $3,000, and he only works fourteen hours a day. 
The next year after that he wants $5,000, and then he only works twelve 
hours a day. And then he works up to $7,000, and he works ten hours a 
day. Then he gets about $10,000, and he works eight hours. And so he 
goes on until he has got $15,000, and he only wants to work four hours." 
And my friend said, by the time he was paying him $25,000 a year he 




LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 15 



didn't want to work at all ; he wanted to have the time to spend his money, 
to go automobiling, to go golfing, to go down to Florida and elsewhere. And 
he said so he had found the higher the salary he paid them the less they 
will do. So that is natural. What does he get his money for unless he has 
the leisure to spend it in? 

Siemens & Halske many years ago sized up this labor situation when 
they realized that there was going to be a great demand in the worlQ for 
copper. At that time the only great copper mine in the world was the Rio 
Tinto, and so they got concessions for copper mines in the Caucasus Moun- 
tains. Those mountaineers had been running around the mountains herd- 
ing sheep and goats and they had no notion whatever of going into the 
mines and working. In former ages they would have made slaves of these 
people and forced them in, but that was not possible in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, so here they were with their mines that they could not open up, and 
a great dearth of labor. They brought down and exposed in the country 
stores a whole lot of women's finery and they also brought down some 
women who wore that kind of finery and who went to the different dances ; 
headgear, purses, necklaces, stockings, shoes, gii'dles, and so on were ex- 
posed in the country stores. The men have been working in the mines 
ever since. 

People work primarily to keep alive; secondly, like those Caucasians, 
to help those they love; thirdly, because they like it; fourth, perhaps be- 
cause they want to get ahead ; and fifth, though very rarely, because they 
want to make the world better. 

How many animals have been trained to work by man out of all the 
thousands of animals in the world ? About half a dozen. The ox, the ass, 
the horse, the elephant, and then that one animal that has always worked 
with pleasure rather than from compulsion, the dog. The dog takes up 
his work with delight, he makes play of it ; in that respect he is, perhaps, 
a model creature of all those on earth. I don't know any animal that con- 
verts its work so much into play as the dog. So rare is the faculty of work 
among animals that when anybody trains a lion, a tiger or a bear, or some- 
thing of that kind, they put him on the vaudeville stage and we pay money 
for the pleasure of seeing a bear or some other animal work, because it is 
such a marvelous thing that any animal should work. 

How can we get people to work ? The employer is between two boun- 
daries. On the one side is what he wants, what he would like to do, and 
on the other is what he can do. To illustrate by an analogy, if a man wants 
to build a railroad from New York to Denver, for instance, the ideal would 
be a perfectly straight line with a uniform grade all the way, while in fact 
we know that the early roads wandered up and down along the valleys, 
avoiding the mountains, climbing over the hills ; they were kinky, very un- 
dulating and very long. There is the difference between what you can do 
and what you would like to do. 

The same is true in agriculture. If you go into a hothouse, the man 
owning the hothouse raises exactly what he wants, where he wants it and 
when he wants it. If he goes out into the open field he trusts to the sun. 
the climate and the rainfall. It is the same thing with our human prob- 
lem. Thei^ is what y.ou would like to do and there is what you can do. In 



16 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

this labor problem I would like to illustrate it by one of the oldest labor 
problems that we ever had in this country and that has gone perhaps far- 
ther than any other, and that is the servant girl question. 

The servant girls are not tied together by any union. There vs-as a 
time when there v/ere ten girls for one mistress, one mistress was able to 
direct their work in every kind of way. At the present time, as we know, 
there are ten mistresses and only one girl. How have we met the situa- 
tion? We are more luxurious than we were then. We have more things 
than we had in the previous generation. Civilization has not stopped, and 
yet the old days of household work has stopped. The laundry work is done 
outside, a great deal of the cooking and baking is done outside, light and 
heat is furnished from the outside, the meals you can go and take at a 
hotel or restaurant, and we bring in some specialist to wash the clothes 
and bring in another specialist to catch the mice and exterminate the 
roaches, and we have side-stepped the question. There are a few women 
who are still able to keep servants in their houses and they do it by out- 
bidding their neighbors and making the conditions very much more favor- 
able. That is one way, of course, of securing labor when it is scarce. 
Those are the only two solutions that there are. One is to sidestep the 
whole problem, and the other is to outbid your neighbor. 

Some of the problems with reference to labor are national, to cut out 
useless work, to simplify necessary work. Others are individual, to adjust 
the work to the w^orker, to draw in younger workers, to recall older work- 
ers, to call in women, to substitute machines or go where labor is plentiful. 
This problem shifts all the time back and forth. It is like the western 
front, it is one of those problems that is never solved. The temporary 
solution depends on the man who has the ability to solve it, and there again 
we come up to this question of the employer. 

I have often asked employers if they realized that there were only 
seven great activities in the world, that everybody who works at all does 
it in one of the seven great activities into which human endeavor is subdi- 
vided. The very first thing for an employer to ask himself is to which 
one of those seven great divisions he belongs, because that in itself will 
settle and outline many of his problems for him. And when you find that 
an employer does not realize the difference between those different divi- 
sions, how can you expect him to solve some of the minor problems that 
appertain particularly to one or the other of the divisions? 

The first division of all is that oldest one of production ; the appropri- 
ating, the reducing to individual ownership of the resources that exist in 
nature. Take first of all fishing, hunting of wild animals, wild fish. Then 
we come to agriculture. That depends on the sun, on the climate ; lumber- 
ing, mining, all those I classify under the head of production, because they 
are taking what is already there and reducing it to individual ownership. 

There is no connection in production between the price at which the 
product is sold and the cost of producing it. That is the very important 
fact about production. The problem for the man who goes into prodi\ction 
is just exactly the opposite from the way he generally tackles it. It is not 
to produce something and then try to get a price for it ; it is to find out 
what the price is and then go to produce something that is sufficiently un- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 17 



der the price to enable him to make a profit or to make the thing pay. You 
cannot estabhsh by any system the relationship between the price that you 
can get for a natural product and what it costs you to secure it. Of course, 
you know in production you require men rather elementary of character to 
carry on this work on a large scale, with the help, very often, of rough 
machines. 

The second great division is that of manufacture. That is utterly dif- 
ferent. You produce iron ore, for instance, for a dollar a ton, and then you 
manufacture it into needles worth $200,000 a ton, or into bed springs. 
There is absolutely no limit to the value you can put on a manufactured 
article, where there is most decidedly a limit that you can put on a pro- 
duced article, because you come into competition with natural laws and the 
price is kept at a dead level. But when it comes to manufacture, you can 
take cotton thread worth twenty cents a pound and produce lace worth a 
thousand dollars an ounce. In manufacture you need an entirely different 
class of labor; very great personal skill. 

The third great division is that of transportation. You take the ob- 
ject from the place w!here it is less wanted and deliver it at the place where 
it is more wanted, and you obtain a rate or a tariff or a toll for doing that. 
Transportation again requires entirely different characteristics from either 
manufacture or production. 

A fourth division is that of storage, taking the thing at one time and 
holding it until another time, the element of time coming in and adding 
value to the product. 

The fifth is that of exchange, of taking it from one man who wants it 
less and passing it over. In storage you have a rent, you exact rent. In 
exchange you take it from the man who wants it less and pass it over to 
the man who wants it more, and you receive a commission for doing that. 
The exchange is one of the safest businesses that you can possibly engage 
in, and that is one of the reasons that the Hebrews for so many centuries 
went into that particular line of business, because when they wei'e op- 
pressed, when they were objects of robbery, they were able in that partic- 
ular line to hold their own better than if they had been in manufacturing 
where their plants could have been taken away from them or in transpor- 
tation where their conveyances would have been taken. 

But in exchange a man can sell something that is in China to somebody 
else who is in South Africa, and it never comes within ten thousand miles 
of him, and he exacts his commission for transacting the work, and it is on 
the whole an exceedingly safe business. 

Sixth, we have the great domain of personal service for which a fee 
is exacted. Personal service may be such as the barber renders you or the 
man who blacks your shoes; it may be the physician, it may be the lawyer, 
it may be the preacher. In that case material is not handled at all, but it 
is something that is taken from the inside of the giver. He gives some- 
thing that belongs individually to him and he transfers it to you, gives it 
to you, and for that he receives a fee. 

Finally, we have the iniquitous division of those who are parasites, 
who don't render service but prey on the community. 

I was recently talking to a great railroad official, and he said to me 



18 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



that railroading was very disappointing, that he thought he would like to 
go into manufacturing, and that he had had some offers to take him into 
manufacturing. I advised him very strongly against considering it. He 
asked me why. I said, "I will tell you why, in railroading there is $11,000 
invested for each man in railroad employ. The total revenues of the rail- 
roads are about four billion dollars a yeai', and the total capital is about 
twenty billion, so that you have five times as much capital invested as you 
have turn-over; as a consequence you have to operate at a very low ratio, 
you have to operate at about seventy per cent or seventy-five per cent. 
That is, out of every dollar you receive you can only spend seventy to sev- 
enty-five cents in the actual cost of operation and at that you can only af- 
ford to pay five per cent dividends on your capital." I said, "When you 
turn to manufacturing, into which you think of going, see how entirely 
different the problem is there. The manufacturer has some five hundred 
to two thousand dollai's invested per man. Some of the large manufactur- 
ers of the United States turn over their capital five times in the year in- 
stead of one-fifth, as the railroads do. One of the very largest concerns 
operating in Chicago operates at a ratio of ninety-seven to ninety-eight.' 
That is, out of every one hundred cents that it receives it has spent 
ninety-eight cents in producing the article. And it pays on this capital 
twenty per cent dividends. A man w^ho has been in a business where he 
has five times as much invested as he brought in, where he was accus- 
tomed to operate on a seventy per cent basis and was only expected to pay 
five per cent dividends, you suddenly transfer him over into a business in 
which he has got to operate fivefold for his capital, and operates as closely 
as ninety-eight per cent, and is expected to pay twenty per cent dividends, 
he would have a remai'kably hard time. It would be very much easier for 
a manufacturer to go over into railroading and make a success of it than 
it would for the railroad man to pass from railroading to manufacture." 

I submit that simply so that you will see that it is necessaiy for the 
man to consider his o^va particular business and his own particular prob- 
lems before he can expect to solve them. 

What about after the war? I have never considered the labor prob- 
lem as a serious one. It has never struck me as more than incidental in 
the business. I know a lai'ge business at the present time that has to look 
for its clay that it uses in its work all over the world, in Greenland and 
different parts of the United States, and in South America. It sends peo- 
ple out all over the world looking for the particular kind of clay that it 
wants. It has to have an immense amount of power in order to treat this 
clay. Again it has men all over North America and into Canada, east and 
west, and into the United States north and south. I find it has caisson 
at the falls of the Zambesi and caisson at the gi'eat falls of South Amer- 
ica, and men looking all over the world to find the place where they can 
secure power at a reasonable rate, and they will take their clay that they 
get in Greenland and cany it, if necessar>% to South America to be treated ; 
or they will take clay that they find in Asia and cany it to Afnca to be 
treated. Now, to a firm that has a problem of that kind on its hands the 
labor question seems more or less incidental, because the other questions 
are so much larger. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 19 



Of course, any man that insists on staying in exactly the same city 
that his grandfather did and carrying on the business of his gi-andfather 
in the same way, undoubtedly he is going to have very acute labor prob- 
lems which he can only meet as the housewife meets the servant problem, 
by outbidding somebody else, or by improving the conditions. But we do 
not want to forget that of the sixteen hundred million people in the world 
most of them are not working at over five or ten per cent of nonnal human 
capacity ; that there is an absolutely unlimited storehouse of human energy 
that has not yet been touched and not been drawn on, a reserve perhaps as 
great as that which we have already covered by machinery. 

We must not forget that in antiquity they had achieved in many re- 
spects a far higher efficiency without machinery than we have achieved 
with its help; that there were whole communities in antiquity that were 
able to live indefinitely almost without work. Not because they weie not 
producers but because they had known how to produce with the slightest 
amount of expense. We do not want to forget that the cheapest form of 
transportation that was ever evolved was evolved in Africa in cai rying the 
goods from the interior to the coast, that it was far cheaper than anything 
we have ever dreamed of with our railroads. We do not want to forget 
that the largest amount of transportation even in the United States today, 
the movement of material from one spot to another for the benefit of man- 
kind, is not carried by the railroads, it is not carried by steam power, but 
is carried by the force of gravitation that costs us nothing. We do not 
want to forget all those possible reservoirs, and what is ahead of us is for 
each man to adjust himself to the conditions rather than to allow the con- 
ditions to master him, because if he sets up a particular set of conditions 
and then tries to succeed in them he has forged any number of fetters for 
himself. But if he chooses to look the whole problem in the face and go 
where it is most easily solved, there is an unlimited possibility ahead of 
him. 

After the war what I want to see coming is this : Recently in Pitts- 
burgh I read an editorial commenting about some professor out in San 
Francisco whose words I had not seen, but who seemed to have voiced very 
much the thought that I had, and this Pittsburgh editorial said that this 
professor had no vision, that what he had had was a nightmare. And it 
may be that what I feel now is no vision but rather a nightmare. It seems 
to me that what we have seen in Russia is merely the dawn of what im- 
pends more or less all over the civilized world. We have seen there to an 
extent that we would have believed incredible a few years ago, the abso- 
lute collapse and destruction of a whole civilization, that in my estimation 
it will take a couple of generations, at least a couple of generations, to 
build up again, and the Bolsheviki spirit that exists in Russia is rampant 
throughout the whole of this country. 

Of course, I do not expect that we shall have anything similar to what 
you have seen in Russia. I am not as foreboding as that. But we shall 
nevertheless have a period of very great readjustment and very possibly a 
readjustment backwards instead of forwards. That is what I apprehend. 

There are two ways in which wages can be advanced. One is the natu- 
ral method, the proper method, the beneficial method, the one that has 



20 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



tended to the uplift of the world. That is making the advance depend abso- 
lutely on the effort, on the gain of the worker. When the worker delivers 
more it is perfectly proper that the returns should go up. In other words, as 
unit costs go down wages can very properly rise, and they should rise. 
Under those circumstances the worker is tremendously interested in see- 
ing that the unit cost goes down. There is a regular mathematical law 
there. Only to a certain extent can the unit cost go down and only to a 
certain extent can the wages go up. 

When you have a system of that kind where the unit cost goes down 
and correspondingly wages go up, why then the worker is encouraged to 
help depress the unit cost. That is the attitude that he assumes. 

I remember a great employer of labor who lived in Chicago saying on 
one occasion, "We view with great satisfaction the fact that our workers 
have been paid $600,000 in the year more than they were paid last year, 
because we know that that increase to the worker meant a lower unit cost 
to us." So instead of feeling alaimed and depressed over the rise in wages 
he rejoiced over the larger sum that went to the men because he knew that 
was so correlated to the output that it meant a lower unit cost. 

On the other hand, when you raise wages without any connection 
whatever with the unit cost you inevitably find that the worker takes his 
bonus in the form of more leisure, like the banker that I began by telling 
you about. The man will ask for eight hours instead of ten; he will ask 
for a fifty per cent increase in wages and then he will only do two-thirds as 
much per hour, because he prefers to take his bonus in the form of leisure. 
That is the spirit that is confronting us all over the United States today. 
It is the spirit that employers will have to face, and it is going to confront 
us, I think, to a very much greater extent after the war. A man who has 
once had high wages for small work will never again as long as he lives be 
satisfied with more work and perhaps lessened wages. 

I remember one occasion — I don't remember whether I have told you 
this tale here in this same society — but I remember once when I was out 
on the Pacific coast going into a carpenter's house who asked me to come 
and look at his house. He built it himself, he told me, and felt a good deal 
of pride in it, and so I went over to look at his house, and he toook me up 
into the garret and walked from the garret into the caller and all around. 
In the upper story there were men lying reading and smoking; coming to 
the second floor there were more men reading and lying around; coming 
to the first story there were again two or three of them sitting around 
quite peaceably. Altogether there were ten or twelve men in that house. 
I said to him, "These men are not working?" He said, "No." I said, "Is 
it a holiday today?" He said, "No, no hohday." I said, "Are they on 
strike?" "No," he said, "not on strike." I knew that there was a tre- 
mendous demand for labor at three dollars a day at that time in Seattle, 
and I said, "What is the matter, no strike, no holiday ?" I thought it was 
perhaps some Swedish holiday. They were all Swedes and Norwegians. 
I thought it might be some national holiday. He said nothing of that kind. 
I just could not understand it. Why were these men not worldng, I asked 
him. I said, "Why aren't they working?" "Well," he said, "you see they 
go up to Alaska in April and they get seven dollars a day." This was De- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 21 

cember. ''They go up in April and they get seven dollars a day and they 
come back in October, and it would be beneath their dignity to work for 
less than seven dollars a day." So they waited from October until Apiil 
until they could go once more and get the seven dollars a day. 

That is what I mean when I say that this spirit that has become ram- 
pant in Russia is more or less pervasive in this country also. The prob- 
lem will have to be met by each man for himself. He has got to face it, 
and the man that has the ability to face the problem will find a solution. 
(Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN : I regret very much to have to announce a slight 
change of program through the illness of the speaker who was to be here 
on this occasion, Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, who I understand is sick, but who 
in our interest has prepared her paper, which will be presented to the con- 
vention. Although we unfortunately miss the pleasure of her presence we 
nevertheless will have a manifestation of her ability. We have been very 
fortunate in securing in our time of need the vice-chairman of the Wom- 
an's Committee of the Council of National Defense, Illinois Division, Mrs. 
Frederick A. Dow, who will now address us on "Some Things Women Have 
Done and Are Doing to Help Win the War." Mrs. Dow. 

MRS. FREDERICK A. DOW: Mr. Chainnan and friends: I regret 
exceedingly that our chaiiman, Mrs. Bowen, is ill, but I feel that it is due 
her that her own paper should be read as she has written it, and as I am 
vice-chairman I probably would have told many of the things which she 
has told in her paper, and it gives me pleasure to read them. I am sure you 
regret, as I do, that a mother with two sons in the service, one in military 
service and one in the navy, and whose sons-in-law are both engaged in the 
service, that a woman of that experience cannot be here, as she would, of 
course, give a great deal more vim and personal energy to it than I can. 
But I do feel happy in being able to present this splendidly written paper 
which does describe our work. 

"SOME THINGS THAT WOMEN HAVE DONE AND ARE DOING 

TO HELP WIN THE WAR" 

Mrs. Joseph T. Bowen, Chaiiman, Woman's Committee, Council of 
National Defense, Illinois Division. 

In almost every town and city in the country we hear the tread of 
marching feet as thousands of our young men are sent abroad, to enter the 
greatest conflict the world has ever known. In thousands of American 
homes there is a vacant chair from which the son of the home has gone 
forth to fight — perhaps to die — in defense of those principles and those 
ideals for which this nation has ever stood. 

The call to the colors has come, not only to the men of the nation but 
to the women, and just as a hundred years ago our women sewed i\nd knit- 
ted and preserved for the men of their families, so must the women of to- 
day sew and knit and conserve for the men of that larger family — the 
American nation. 



22 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

At the beginning of the war the Council of National Defense in Wash- 
ington had so many offers of service from women all over the country that 
they finally appointed a Woman's Committee, of the Council of National 
Defense, to have charge of the war work of women all over the country. 
This committee had at its head that splendid leader among women — Dr. 
Anna Howard Shaw\ It appointed a chairman in every state in the Union, 
and, in Illinois, the State Chairman has the advantage of being a member 
of the State Council of Defense, and it is therefore somewhat easier in Illi- 
nois than in some of the other states, to co-ordinate the work under one 
head. 

The Illinois Chairman has to assist her an Executive Committee of 
twenty-eight members. Sixteen of these women are at the heads of De- 
partments, known as Finance, Publicity, Thiift, and Consen^ation, War 
Information, Registration, Speakers, Courses of Instruction, Food Produc- 
tion, Women and Children in Industiw, Social Agencies, Allied Relief, Child 
Welfare and Organization. The last named department has about finished 
the work of organization throughout the state — the most complete organi- 
zation of women that we have ever had in Illinois. 

The state has been organized on the same principle as the General 
Committee. There is now a chairman in every one of the 102 counties, and 
these local chairmen have to assist them sub-chainnan of Registration, 
Finance, etc. Every town and every city in the county has its own chair- 
man, also every to\Miship. There are only a few exceptions. The pui'pose 
in having To^\Tlship ChaiiTnen is that they may look after the rural women 
who do not live in the to\^Tis or cities. In some districts we are still fur- 
ther promoting this organization by having a Chairman of School Districts. 

The larger cities are organized by wards. Chicago, for example, has a 
chaiiTnan in every one of its thirty-five wards, and in some of the more 
highly organized wards there is a leader in every precinct and on eveiy 
block. 

The whole idea of this organization is that we may be prepared to meet 
any government request which may come to us for service which w^omen 
may render. To illustrate : In the first Liberty Loan campaign the women 
of Chicago were asked to sell $750,000 woii:h of bonds. They sold $6,000,- 
000 woi-th— and in the state they sold $20,000,000 worth. 

At one time we were asked by the Federal Food Department to secure 
signatures to the Hoover pledge cards. Speeches were made throughout 
Chicago and the state urging women to sign the cards. Patriotic meets 
were held in 268 of Chicago's public schools, and 672,000 cards were re- 
turned to Washington. When the government found it necessary to ask 
for the use of marine glasses for its naval officers, an appeal was made by 
this organization, throughout the state, asking people to send in their 
glasses and thus furnish eyes for the Navy. Over 3,000 such glasses have 
been received by the State Council of Defense, although we do not know 
how many were sent by women. 

As an illustration of the importance of this organization, I might cite 
that some time ago when fuel was very scai'ce, the Fuel Administrator 
asked the leaders in Chicago's thirty-five wards to act as fuel distributors. 
These ward leaders were invited to a meeting of the State Council of De- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 23 



fense, where they were introduced to the coal dealers of their districts. 
Notice was given to consumers that when they needed coal they must tele- 
phone to the Ward Leader, who would send an investigator to iind out if 
the demand was a real one, and if it was, then the fuel distributor in that 
neighborhood would be asked to send the coal. In this way, Ward Leaders 
have handled 16,339 orders for coal. 

The Registration Department has been trying to get the women of the 
state to register for war service. This registration has been taken or is 
being taken now in thirty-five states. 

Governor Lowden issued a proclamation asking the women of the state 
to signify their willingness to be of service. This registration was neces- 
sary in order that we might have knowledge of the woman power of the 
state, and know how many women could be depended upon to take the 
places of men who have gone to the front — as farm laborers, bank clerks, 
taxi-cab drivers, gas inspectors, postwomen, etc. ; also that we might know 
how many women there are who can be depended upon to look after the 
various philanthropic and charitable associations in which women have so 
long been interested. 

The Registration Committee trained 10,000 registrars. They found 
that an educational campaign in every neighborhood was necessary before 
the registration could be secured. Registration officers traveled through- 
out the state explaining the value, and the use to be made of the registra- 
tion, and speakers were sent all over the city. As a result, 602,000 women 
have registered for war service, and the committee estimates that it has at 
work already 346,500 women. We have, however, 3,000,000 women in Illi- 
nois, and we feel that this registration is not large enough. An attempt, 
therefore, is being made at the present time to increase the number. 

The registration cards for every county are filed at the county seat; 
those for Chicago are filed in the State Council of Defense building. Even 
before the cards were filed we had a government order for 350 stenogra- 
phers, 200 filing clerks, 150 bookkeepers. 

In many towns throughout the state it has been reported that the 
number of Red Cross workers has doubled as the result of registration. 

Our effort is to make our registi'ation cards talk. They are filed ac- 
cording to wards, and we have people working with them constantly to find 
out what the women will and can do. Tliere is another committee whose 
task it is to put these women at work. 

A large number of women whose sons or husbands have gone to the 
war and who have found themselves obliged to earn a livelihood, have ap- 
plied to the committee for paid positions, and as a result an Employment 
Bureau has been started, and already it has on its lists the names of one 
thousand women who need positions. Unfortunately, most of these women 
are untrained, and ai'e over 40 years of age, and therefore it is difiicult to 
secure positions for them, although in the two months that the Depart- 
ment has been open we have secured positions for about 150 women. 

Finance Committee 

Our Finance Committee has undertaken to raise $100,000 to c;i] ry on 
the work of the Illinois Coniniittoc. Its |x>licy is to get wonuMi whr^ will 



24 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

agree to form units to raise $1,000 each. Under this plan a number of 
entertainments have been given. At the present time a large entertain- 
ment is being planned to show a new moving picture of Belgium. This 
entertainment is to run for a week, at the Auditorium, beginning April 
15th. 

The Woman's Committee of Illinois has been given headquarters in 
the building occupied by the State Council of Defense, and the Council 
provides for its use telephones, postage, printing and the services of two 
stenographers. 

Publicity Department 

The Publicity Committee aims to get to the press every day an outline 
of what is being done by the women. It also intends to carry on certain 
stunts so that the work may be extended to all classes of the community. 
Last spring, for example, it held a large meeting for the cooks of the city. 
At this meeting patriotic speeches were made — the object being to have 
those who actually do the cooking realize the necessity of conservation. 
Recently the Department advertised that it would give prizes for the best 
candy made without sugar; and in connection with another department it 
gave an exhibit of the candy made from the best recipe, and incidentally 
sold 2,100 pounds of it. A prize has also been offered for the best camou- 
flage meat recipes, which recipes have been published in book form. 

Thrift and Conservatian 

The Department of Thrift and Conservation is sending out educational 
matter throughout the state, urging women to practice economy and tell- 
ing them what to eat and how to cook it. Very recently, in connection 
with one of the men's committees, they took a large store on Michigan 
Avenue, where they gave a cornmeal demonstration — showing how to cook 
commeal. This demonstration was attended by 15,000 people. The re- 
cipes were given to all who came. This demonstration was so successful 
that it was copied by five of the large department stores, and the same 
demonstration is now being given in the foreign wards of the citj^ ; also, it 
is being sent down state. 

Information Committee 

The War Information Committee collects information from all over 
the United States and from foreign countries — in regard to women's work 
— which information it tabulates for easy reference, and from it much val- 
uable data has been provided for the use of the Speaker's Department and 
for other women who are trying to arouse the women of Illinois to the 
necessity for action. The committee has published a series of articles on 
the war work of women in France, England, Russia and the United States. 

Food Production Department 

The Food Production Department in its propaganda is urging the im- 
portance of a larger yield to the acre and the planting and cultivating of 
a larger acreage. At present it is planning courses of training for girls as 
well as boys, in farm work; and it has prepared lessons on gardening for 
use in the public schools of the state. It is co-operating with the Women's 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 25 



Land Army Association, which intends this coming summer to experiment 
with training courses for women in farm labor, on several farms where tho 
owners have agreed to take groups of women for this purpose. 

Speakers' Department 

The Speakers' Department has 200 speakers, who have reached ap- 
proximately 250,000 people. It is attempting to combat pro-Germanism, 
and is sending trained speakers of men and women to audiences all over 
the state. When it finds no audiences for the speakers, it endeavors to 
create them, and it is asking to have its speakers placed upon all club 
programs. 

Courses of Instruction Department 

The Courses of Instruction Department is pointing out to women 
where they can obtain instruction in any line of work they wish to enter. 
This Department publishes a bulletin showing where classes are held in 
Home Economics, Home Nursing, Red Cross, Commercial Courses, Teleg- 
raphy — including wireless — ^Motor Driving, Aviation, Engineering, Dra- 
matics, Story Telling, and special courses in the free evening schools. It 
has a course — which it is partially supporting — to instruct teachers who, 
in turn, will instruct the blind and handicapped soldiers in the hospitals 
and convalescent homes. Whenever there is a sufficient demand for a cer- 
tain course of instruction, a way is found to form a class in that particu- 
lar study. It has opened six classes for non-English-speaking women and 
two classes for young girls. It has persuaded the school authorities in 
Chicago to start classes in the high schools in Gardening and Practical 
Motor Repairing — the classes to be open to boys as well as to girls. 

Department of Women and Children in Industry 

The Women and Children in Industry Department has published a re- 
port on Standards for Women's Work. It has made several investigations 
of munition factories where girls were employed and has made certain 
recommendations with which employers have complied. One of the com- 
mittees of this Department is reporting on all violations of the Child Labor 
Law. It is urging the establishment of emergency Day Nurseries for the 
period of the war. It has an exhibit of women in industry in war time, 
and it has maintained a small social center in the Polish quarters of Chi- 
cago, where instruction is given to the neighborhood children. It is also 
giving to foreign-born women lessons in patriotism, in English, and in in- 
terpreting current events. x 

Social Service Department 

The Social Service Department is interviewing and selecting volun- 
teers who will do social service work. Already it has placed nearly 700 vol- 
unteers, and it has interviewed 800 others. It has provided with wool the 
women inmates of the state penitentiary, the Cook County hospital and the 
Tuberculosis Sanitarium, which they have knitted into comforts for the 
soldiers. About a thousand garments have been knitted up to the present 
time. An old woman was found in one of these institutions wl\o had 
one ball of wool. She would knit all day, and ravel out her work at ni^ht 



26 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

in order that she might knit it over again the following morning. When 
she was told that she might have all the wool she wanted and that the gar- 
ments she made would be of real use to our soldiers and sailors, she burst 
into teai's. 

Health and Recreation Department 

The Health and Recreation Department has twenty-eight physicians 
who are speaking on social hygiene to girls in clubs and factories during 
the luncheon hour. The film ''How Life Begins" is being showTi at these 
lectures. Already over 10,000 factory girls have been reached. The De- 
pai^tment has a Recreational expert who gives courses in recreation and 
who is training leaders for recreational work. This Department also is 
forming Girls' Patriotic Leagues. Notices are put up in factories and the 
girls are invited to come to the nearest hall or settlement house, where they 
are given a patriotic talk and are asked to join the League and to pledge 
themselves to do what they can to help the country. WTien a group of 
this kind is foimed, it is put in charge of a leader, who visits them in their 
homes and sees that they do not lose interest in the League. Already 
8,000 such girls have been formed into Leagues. 

Department of Child Welfare 

The Child Welfare Department, with the assistance of the state au- 
thorities, has undertaken this winter to enforce birth registration. At 
the present time Illinois registers only 65 per cent of its birihs. We should 
hke to make that percentage over 90 per cent, in order that Illinois may 
be put into what is known as the Birth Registration Area to which Massa- 
chusetts and other eastern states belong. 

This Department plans also to establish a nurse in every community 
of the state, who ^vi\\ look after mothers and new-bom babies, and see that 
they have the care which in countiy communities is so often lacking. Miss 
Lathrop, of the Children's Bureau, has asceii^ined that last year in the 
United States 15,000 mothers and 300,000 children died — many of them 
from neglect. 

The Department also is talking of establishing a school for midwives, 
in order that our foreign women may have more expert care at the time of 
childbirth. It is said that it is more dangerous to be a baby in Chicago 
than to be a soldier at the front, and we know that for every soldier who is 
killed on the European battlefields, eleven babies die in the city of Chicago. 
It may appear to some people that this concern for the women who work 
and the babies of the state, is not war work. Some women w^ho volunteer 
for service say they want to do something connected with the war — not 
the same old things they have always done. Patriotism, however, does not 
mean just the singing of our national anthem, waving the American flag 
and cheering our troops as they pass by. It means much more, and while 
our men are fighting at the front, our patriotism must show itself by 
guarding the rear from the enemies who constantly assault us there, such 
enemies as crime, greed, ignorance, tuberculosis, child labor, infant mor- 
tality, etc. — enemies which are doubly active in time of war and which are 
as gi'eat a menace to the nation as are the enemies our men are fighting 
every day upon the battle front. It is our business not only to conquer 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 27 

these foes but to build a better foundation for the citizenship of the future. 

There is perhaps now another reason why we should take particular 
care of our women and babies. I suppose if we had been present at the 
last good-byes said by thousands of our young married men who have gone 
abroad, we would have heard them say, "Good-bye; take good care of my 
wife and babies for me.*' This was a sacred trust given to us by these men 
who had to leave their loved ones to go "Somewhere over there" alone. 

The world is no longer a stage, with the men and women on it merely 
puppets. It is a vast workshop in which every man and woman must do 
his or her share. The ancients used to say that "to labor was to work." 
It is also to fight. Work is the word of the hour, and the manner in which 
we work means victory or defeat. The men or women who will not work 
because they do not believe in war are not patriots, are not good citizens, 
and if they will not support this government in this war they are not en- 
titled to its protection and really belong under the Prussian Eagle and not 
the Stars and Stripes. 

To be a pacifist now is as if a fireman should fold his arms and dream 
of the day when all buildings should be incombustible, while the fire rages 
about him, and men, women and children burn to death before his eyes. 

Our men are now in the trenches, in the mud and wet, living in it, 
sleeping in it, eating in it — suffering from vermin and filth; they have 
given up comforts and pleasures, home and family, everything they hold 
most dear ; some of them have given up their lives. We are not asked — no 
matter what we do — to make any such sacrifice, but we are asked to unite 
and work together for the successful prosecution of the war. 

Our men are fighting for the most righteous cause for which any coun- 
try ever fought ; they are fighting for the very life of the smaller nations, 
for democracy, for the liberty of the people of the world. If we who are 
left at home would stand behind our troops abroad, if we would have them 
fight efficiently, we must see to it that their families are adequately cared 
for, and we must also, in addition, pour into the war chest of the nation 
our time, our strength, our energy, our money — all that we have, all that 
we are; and when the war is over and we have won — as win we must — and 
peace is declared and our troops come home, perhaps with thinned ranks, 
let us be able to look into the faces of those who are left and to say : "You 
have fought nobly abroad, but we, too, have tried to fight at home." 

THE CHAIRMAN: While it is a matter of regret that Mrs. Bowen 
was not able to deliver her paper, I am sure we feel that it has lost noth- 
ing in the reading by Mrs. Dow. 

In launching a great convention of this kind, where the work of prep- 
aration has been going on for a number of weeks, and things have been 
very strenuous indeed, those most actively interested naturally feel keenly 
the initial opening meeting. While these features have been going on, 
these papers read, I have from time to time been observing the behavior 
of Mr. George C. Dent, secretary of the Western Efficiency Society and 
assistant secretary of the Industrial Engineers, and I have noticed that he 
has gradually relaxed, and I take that as a sign that he feels that the thing 
has started right ; that it is going strong and going well. The typo and 
character of the addresses that we have heard this afternoon are but a 



28 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDEPw WAR CONDITIONS 

sample of the good things that are to come, and I trust that every one of 
us will make every effort possible to attend every meeting of this conven- 
tion. 

I have no further announcements at this time save to call your atten- 
tion to the Educational and Commercial exhibits at the other end of the 
building. 

On motion the meeting adjourned. 

SECOND SESSION 
Wednesday, Evening, March 27, 1918 

The meeting was called to order by the Chairman, Mr. Irving A. 
Bemdt, manager Betterment Department Joseph T. Ryerson & Son. The 
audience joined in singing ''America." 

SECRETARY DENT: On the program for Friday evening we have 
Major Frank B. Gilbreth. As some of our members know, the Major was 
taken seriously ill with pneumonia several weeks ago. I received a letter 
from Mrs. Gilbreth this morning, which I would like to read. 

Post Hospital, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, 

March 22, 1918. 
My dear Mr. Dent : 

Mr. Gilbreth continues to improve, slowly but steadily, and is well 
enough now to appreciate all the "pulling" that his friends have been doing 
for him. I know it has all helped ! Will you please thank everyone who 
has inquired, and especially Mr. Berndt and Mr. Gould, whose letters we 
received yesterday, and who will, I know, accept this word through you 
instead of a letter direct, that I may give just as much more time to nurs- 
ing the impatient "patient" back to health. 

For his great desire is to be "back on the job — (^uick!" In many ways 
I cannot see that he has ever stopped working ! They say that he spent all 
the time before I came, while in terrible pains from the rheumatism that 
followed overwork, in trying out the "Case" crutches and tools for crippled 
soldiers, and in planning new uses for them. 

And I know that after I came, when he struggled through the uremic 
poisoning and pneumonia, that he talked of the work in his delirium, day 
and night, hour by hour. 

And even through the awful time when, but for the "pulUng" we all 
did, he couldn't have come through; he muttered "The One Best Way" 
till I could only pray that it was Life ! 

Well, here he is — weak and still in danger, and a crippled soldier in- 
deed — ^but as strenuous in spirit at least, as ever ! And wondering half the 
time when he can begin to do things, and the rest of the time "What will 
they do for the Crippled Soldier Cause in Chicago." 

Will you give his greetings to the Conference, to our friends, and to 
yourself. And rest assured that, though our bodies are forced to stay 
here, our hearts are in the good work that you are doing there for the 
causes that are dear to us all. Sincerely, 

(Signed) Lillian M. Gilbreth. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 29 



THE CHAIRMAN : No doubt all of us have already missed the Major 
and Mrs. Gilbreth, and it would seem only fitting that we send immediately 
some word to these loyal individuals, expressing our appreciation of this 
letter and our sympathy at this time. May I not entertain some such 
motion ? 

MR. EMERSON : Mr. Chairman, I would like to move that this con- 
vention instruct the secretary to send a telegram to Mrs. Frank B. Gil- 
breth, expressing our sympathy and our thankfulness that Major Gilbreth 
is recovering, and our regret that he is not with us, and our loss at his 
absence. 

The motion was seconded and carried. 

THE CHAIRMAN : This meeting, the second of the session, and con- 
sisting of the second half of our consideration of "Women in Industry,'' is 
certainly an important session. We will hear first from One Thousand 
Questionnaires on Women in Industry. This is the first report, the first 
analysis which has been tabulated under the supervision of Mr. C. E. 
Knoeppel, as a result of questionnaires sent out to manufacturers, indus- 
trial engineers, educators. I hardly need to introduce any further Mr. 
Knoeppel. You all know of him, of his good work. Those of you who 
were here at the last conference and many of the meetings of the Western 
Efficiency Society, have heard him before. 

There is just one thing I would like to say about Mr. Knoeppel at this 
time. From my own personal analysis I think he is the type of individual 
that we need most right now. He is the type of man who has a keen abil- 
ity to analyze the present situations and tell us his conclusions, whether 
they are agreeable to hear or not. Like the doctor, he may give us bitter 
medicine, but it will be good for us in the end. There has been, Mr. Knoep- 
pel advises me, some little criticism on some of the pamphlets he has issued 
in which he has been called pessimistic and a calamity howler, but is it not 
necessary for us just at this time to have some one to tell us just how seri- 
ous the situation is and just how we need the sort of attention that we at- 
tempt to give to this problem at this conference? Certainly besides telling 
us the problem Mr. Knoeppel has always given us constructive suggestions, 
and this, of course, we know will come tonight. And I say to you that I 
think no matter whether we all agree with Mr. Knoeppel's conclusions, he 
has brought to us something which ought to stir each one of us and make 
us work harder during this conference and after its close. 

I take great pleasure in and consider it a privilege to introduce Mr. C. 
E. Knoeppel, counsel on organization and management. New York City. 
(Applause.) 

MR. KNOEPPEL: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : The Anioi- 
ican people have never yet refused during a critical time to fully measure 
up to a situation, and with jaw out and on tiptoes face it with every inten- 
tion of going through to the limit. And while it may be true that some of 
my conclusions tonight may be considered as pessimistic, I want to say 
that the basis of it is optimism, a realization that sooner or later, it don't 
make any difference when, this great nation ^vith the allies will beat Ger- 



30 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

many decisively. But inasmuch as we have many things to do before that 
time, I feel it necessary as a prelude in the discussion of the question of 
Women in Industry, to go somewhat into the things that should make us 
sit up and take notice. 

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY. 
By C. E. Bjioeppel. 

Are Women Going to Be Needed in Industry? 

The first question to answer, in considering this great subject, is 
whether or not we need women in large numbers in industry. If not, any 
extended treatment or discussion of the subject is unneccessary. If we 
do, then the next question to decide is, whether we will need them now, 
or later on. 

To answer the first question, three important and \'ital factors must 
be taken into consideration, most seriously. 

1. The present military situation. 

2. German strategy. 

3. The shipping situation. 

The Present Militaiy Situation. 

Germany in addition to controlling the destinies of Austria-Hungary, 
Turkey and Bulgaria, is to all intents and purposes, mistress of Serbia, 
Belgium, Poland, part of France, part of Italy, Roumania and Russia. The 
elimination of one country after another, gives Germany access to rich de- 
posits of minerals, oils; vast wheat fields; and labor of conquered areas, 
through deportations ; her several million prisoners of war, who are trained 
mfen ; 150 divisions of her soldiers from the Eastern front, to use as she 
pleases; the troops she can recruit from the captured Eastern sections, 
estimated at from 500,000 to several million seasoned fighters, who will 
be glad to fight for food and drink and money to send home, all of which 
she can concentrate on the Western front, the Italian front or both, and 
which so far have been defended admirably by the Allies. 

Can Germany break through, take Paris and then attack England? 
The foremost military expert in this country states that the result on the 
Western front is a mihtary stalemate ; that it has been demonstrated that 
no frontal attack by either side against the other, can break throusrh. nor 
can the long thin line be turned, with Switzerland at one end and Holland 
at the other. 

Supposing however, that Holland or Switzerland or both, because of 
economic necessity or other reasons, are forced to join with the Central 
Powers? Is this an impossible outcome? Not if one interprets correctly 
the statement recently made bv Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National 
Service, in which he said that the disposition of the German Armies on the 
British front, was most remarkable. He further said : 

"They have placed mass upon mass and Germany's military object will 
be to strike at England. I have no doubt that GeiTniany will strike not 
only at our forces in France, but also if she can, at the heart of England. 
Men in enormous numbers are needed, including men up to 50, to join 
for home defense." 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 31 

Nor is he alone in this concern, as is evidenced by the statement of 
Maj. General Sir C. F. N. Macready, Ad j .-General of the British Army, 
who said: 

"Every man that can be spared from the industries is badly 
needed. Every woman that comes forward helps her country by 
releasing a man. We appeal to them to answer the call." 
Can Germany be beaten economically? Not according to Ex- Ambas- 
sador Gerard, who knows the situation from four years of first hand study, 
and who said : 

"There is no chance of starving Germany and there is no 
chance of winning through a revolution in that country; Ger- 
many can feed all except her old people, whom she leaves to die ; 
before they would starve themselves, they would starve 10,000,- 

000 Poles, 5,000,000 Frenchmen, 2,000,000 Belgians and 
2,000,000 prisoners of war; the only peace she would adhere to 
would be a peace that really gave her the Victory." 

Mind you, he said this before the capitulation of Roumania and Rus- 
sia, which places the Central Powers in a much stronger position than 
ever. 

As a result, the Kaiser now defiantly shouts, "We want peace and 
shall seek it but the victory of German arms must first be recognized." 

Even if Germany gives up her captured territory, Pan-Germany will 
be an established fact (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria) 
with a populaton of 150,000,000, capable of miaintaining an aiTny of 30,- 
000,000. 

Truly not a pretty picture when we see, after nearly four years of 
war, a successful conquest on the one side and a successful defense on 
the other. 

German Strategy. 

What is the reason for the above condition? Military Prepared- 
ness? Yes, to some extent, but not altogether. Germany planned for 
a short war you will remember, but as the saying is, "got left" and had 
to plan all over again and build a new machine. She had other weapons 
which she had been using for years. 

The Allies as they were for three years, were in a much better posi- 
tion from the standpoint of materials, men, money, command of the sea and 
ships. Practically all the inventions now used in warfare, were of Ameri- 
can, French or English origin. This country as a neutral, was a gigantic 
storehouse for the Allies. 

What accounts for the successful conquest of Serbia, Roumania, Rus- 
sia and part of Italy while Germany was holding that Western Front? 
German strategy, nothing more nor less, a fact admitted by Lloyd-George, 
who in a speech on November 12th last, said that after three years of war 
the Entente had no plan of strategy. 

1 wish every one here could read that admirable and illuminating ar- 
ticle "Political Strategy" by Andre Cheredame in the March issue of "The 
Atlantic Monthly." As he says: 

"As a matter of fact, this war not only is not solely a military 
and naval war, it is in addition, a geographical war, an ethno- 



32 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

graphical war, an economic war, a war of national psychology. To 
define its endlessly complex character by a brief phrase which 
includes all these factors, we may say that it is a war of political 
sciences," 

He points out how the invasion of Roumania had been planned by the 
staff in Berlin, with the aid of a practical application of political science ; 
how it was known that a system of spying had been organized in the Rou- 
manian Dobrudja, by Germans who alleged archaeological explorations 
as a pretext, for their travels, and thus acquired valuable information 
as to the swampy ground, which enabled them to have small bridges and 
movable floors all in readiness for the conquest; how side by side with 
geographical study with the ethnographical research, which made it 
possible to effect a general uprising of Bulgarians and Turks in Rou- 
mania against the Roumanians; how from an economic standpoint, mer- 
chants, experts in cattle and cereals and specialists in political economy, 
assembled behind the German lines, to consolidate the gains and ex- 
ploit the country, after the invasion; how national psychology was re- 
sponsible for breaking down the resistance, or morale of the people ; how 
on a much vaster scale, these same factors were at work in the downfall 
of Russia and of Italy, and as Marcosson says is now being used against 
Spain. 

The conclusion and findings of this remarkable man who studied the 
terrible strength of Germany for twenty years, are nothing short of 
uncanny. He states that from the Battle of the Mame, down to the 
offensive against Italv, a period of 38 months, the whole strategy of Ber- 
lin, based on a plan developed in 1895 or 23 years ago, was as follows : 

1. To organize an immovable offensive on the Western front, 
while pretending now and then to attempt a genuine attack. 

2. To carry out without nause a series of circular offensives 
against Russia, Serbia and Roumania, in order to seize one after 
another, the territories of those states, which are essential to the 
constitution of Central Pan-Germany according to the plan of 
1895. 1 

3. To take advantage of these successive offensives on the East- 
ern fronts, to go to the very vitals of Germany*s allies, nroperly 
so-called, that is to say, under cover of helping Austria-Hungarv, 
Bulgaria and Turkey to defend themselves against Russia, Serbia 
and Roumania, to organize those three countries militarily and 
economically and to the precise degree and in the precise form nec- 
essary to bring it about, that even at need, without changing their 
ancient names and the frontiers of 1914, they should contribute to 
practical purpose and almost without suspecting it, to the con- 
stitution of Central Pan-Germany. 

The remarkable thing about it is that this man submits a copy of 
a map contained in a booklet published in 1895 entitled "Greater Ger- 
manv and Central Europe about 1950." 

The similiarity between the map of 1895 and the performance of 
1917 is sufficient evidence that there was more to it than just the military 
aspect. Plan and strategy are responsible. As Cheredame says: 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 33 

"Thus on the Eastern front they have stopped on lines laid 
down beforehand, even when they had before them no Russian 
troops capable of opposing their further advance. Our map also 
enables us to declare on the most irrefutable testimony, that the 
offensive against Italy, which was such a surprise to the Allied 
Staff was provided for most definitely in the plan of 1895." 
This fact was recorded by Italian aviators, November 22nd, and 
confirmed by German Officer prisoners. 

It is further shown that Verdun offensive was really undertaken to 
offset allied plans for an offensive through the Balkans. The 1895 map 
Une falls short of Verdun as it falls short of Venice; that Portugal is to 
be detached from the entente ; that Switzerland is to be violated, enabling 
Germany to seize Marseilles and Toulon, thus cutting France off from the 
Mediterranean, leaving Germany free to deal with Spain according to plans 
already laid down and outlined by Isaac F. Marcosson, in the ''Saturday 
Evening Post." 

Hellish, isn't it? 

The Shipping Situation. 

So much for the present military situation and the reasons for it. I 
dwelt on both at considerable length, in order to drive home to you the 
seriousness of the situation, in order to show you that Germany, stronger 
than ever, will take a lot of smashing before she is defeated, in order 
to indicate that both time and intense effort must be expended before we 
will win this war. 

If all the Allies were at maximum efficiency today, it would still take 
a long time to defeat Germany decisively, for while she is hanging on to 
that Western Front, which experts tell us cannot be broken through, 
she is consolidating her gains in all captured territories, securing the 
benefits therefrom and using their resources against the Allies. 

As the Allies are not at maximum efficiency, it will take a longer time, 
estimated as from three to seven years, and the reason the Allies are not 
at maximum efficiency is SHIPS. 

For every ton of shipping built by the Allies and neutrals in 1917, the 
submarines sank 2.45 tons. During 1917, the submarines accounted for 
6,623,623 tons. Great Britain and this country built 2,703,275 tons. 

The sinkings so far this year, according to P. W. Wilson, American 
Correspondent of the London Daily News, are equivalent to 3 large ships 
daily, or 21 per week, of "over 1600 tons," as the British state it. The 
average citizen ignores the fact that the phrase "over 1600 tons," really 
means about 5000 tons, consequently the losses as indicated by February 
and March sinkings of this year are: 

Weekly 105,000 tons 

Monthly 451,500 tons 

Yearly 5,418,000 tons 

Here, however, is the thing to think about. When the British talk 
of tonnage, they mean gross tons. When we speak of tons, we mean 
deadweight tons. In otKer words a 5,000 ton ship as the British talk about 
it, is a 7,500 ton ship as we express it. Our program was 6,000.000 tons 



^4 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

for this year, as you will remember. Mark Sullivan of "Collier's*' predicts 
that it will be 3,000,000 tons or 2,000,000 tons as the British express sink- 
ings. The President recently expressed his gratitude over the fact that we 
would produce between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 tons. Call it 3,500,000 dead- 
weight tons or 2,233,334 gross tons. If Great Britain turns out its normal 
tonnage (it produced 1,181,497 tons in 1917) it will mean 3,514,808 gross 
tons between us. This means that during 1918, if the Germans keep up 
their present sinkings, for each ton built 1.54 tons will be sunk, or 1.93 to 
one as the average for 1917-1918. 

The Allies are sinking or destroying 23 submarines per week ; the Ger- 
mans are building 38 per month. This is at the rate of 1.65 to one. 

Consider this also. It takes four to ten tons of shipping to transport 
and maintain one soldier abroad. The average is seven tons. To transport 
and maintain the army. Senator McCumber stated we would need abroad 
7,000,000— would require 49,000,000 tons of shipping. All the Allied and 
neutral shipping afloat is 42,000,000 tons with the submarines slowly eat- 
ing into this amount. To even transport and maintain an army of 2,500,000 
men, and we won't do our share with less — would call for 17,500.000 tons 
of shipping, or 40 per cent of all the shipping available. And shipping is 
being destroyed twice as fast as it is being built. 

If we cannot maintain a big army abroad through lack of ships, 
enormous quantities of aircraft, rifles, locomotives, trucks and automobiles, 
at the present rate of manufacture, will pile up in our ports, which will 
bring about industrial disorganization, as we will have to stop making war 
products, aH of which shows that the key to our successfully waging this 
war is ships. 

The neck of the bottle is ocean transportation, for we are building 
war materials five times faster (Collier's) then we can transport them, 
and yet we talk of discontinuing non-essential industries. Hamilton Holt, 
editor of Independent visited 14 shipyards from Philadelphia to New 
Orleans — contracts 260 ships — 50 on the ship ways. Talked with ship- 
builders. Government inspectors and workers and feels there will be no 
ships delivered complete to the Government for the next six months. 

If we can't get ships, and the above clearly indicates this — unless we 
double or triple our ship construction and we are undertaking a tre- 
mendous task as it is — it means but one thing for all of us to look squarely 
in the face — wait until we can get ships enough to put over the real 
American punch — wait, while Germany gets stronger, making it more diffi- 
cult for the Allies to decisively beat her. 

We are going to get the ships, and they will be built faster than they 
are sunk, and when we have them we will put an army and supplies 
into Europe which with the Allies will put over the knockout. But not until 
every man and every woman, every boy and every girl, every grandma and 
every grandpa, have done, not only their bit, but their utmost to win the 
war. 

So you see that from the standpoint of the present military situa- 
tion, the superior political strategy of the Germans, and the lack of 
shipping, a long and bitter war is ahead of us, requiring millions of men 
in the Held. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 35 



Let me give you an idea of the size of the direct and indirect aimy 
needed to wage this war victoriously. 

We are told that the plan is ultimately to have 5,000,000 soldiers 
abroad. It is estimated that it takes 6 1-2 persons, on farms, in mines, 
on railroads, in ships and in factories to maintain a soldier. This then 
means an aiTny of 37,500,000 persons. 
Statistics show that there are: 

45,000,000 between ages 18 and 45 
4,500,000 between ages 15 and 20 
6,000,000 between ages 45 and 60 



55,500,000 Total available 
37,500,000 needed in war pursuits 



18^000,000 available for regular activities 
As I see it the above answers our question as regards whether we will 
need women in industry or not. We will need them in increasing num- 
bers before Berlin capitulates. 

The war can only end in one of three ways. 

A — Lose 
B — Draw 
C— Win 
If we lose, the women need not concern themselves about going into 
industry — the Germans will see to that. If the result is a draw, we can 
prepare our boys and girls for the supreme struggle in about 25 years. 
If we win, it will be when the 100,000,000 of us get behind the war as 
one man. 

The President said to the farmers : 

"The culminating crisis of the struggle has come, the achieve- 
mfents of this year on the one side or the other must determine 
the issue." 

May the Almighty help us if this is so, in view of the points brouerht 
out in the foregoing. May we awake to the seriousness of the thing, 
kill off forever this mad dog of Europe, and destroy this poison which would 
set the world back one hundreH years. 

There must be no draw. We cannot lose, if posterity means anything 
at all to us. WE MUST WIN. 

How long will it take? Colonel Sir Berkeley Moynihan, C. B. Senior 
Consulting Surgeon of the Royal Army Medical Corps of the Bntish AiTny. 
said November 8th, last, before 1500 physicians and their wives at the 
Waldorf-Astoria in New York : 

**I am asked how long the war will last. I will say for Amer 
ica that the war will have just begun, when every man of military 
age shall have offered his life to bis country: when your wealth, 
your souls and your honor have been offered, when you have 
mourned your dead by the hundreds of thousands." 
When will it end? Let young Jimmy Gerson ("Over Here" by Earl 
Derr Biggers in ''Collier's**) tell us : 



36 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

*T\\ tell them when it will end — it will end when the men who 
trampled dowTi Belgium and France, who murdered people like 
cattle, who ruined the fruit trees and burned their homes, it will 
end when those men feel the gi'ip of the world at their throats. 
It will end when the crowd who started this war of lust and loot 
are in full retreat, when Willie down, at Verdun is shouting to 
papa at Berlin: 'Come, for God's sake! and papa at Berlin is 
screaming to WlHie at Verdun: 'Run for God's sake!' It will end 
with the siege of the Rhine ! 

"That's when it will end if it's left to us fellows who are going 
over. We're ready to stand in ice water up to our waists, to live 
with rats in a rain of German shells, to go over the top and be 
finished. Nobody need worry about our boys over there. But 
how about the bunch left over here — the crowd that want to know 
how soon it will end ? Are they going to queer us ? Will they fall 
for the German tricks? Will the pacifists turn their blood to 
water? Only one thing can do for us and that isn't the German 
army. It's our own people at home. Maybe some guy in Terre 
Haute will get tired putting three-cent stamps on his letters. 
Maybe some fellow in Cleveland will get sick of the graham bread. 
Maybe some fat little soul in Denver will get to worrying about 
his profits. And they'll come together and decide that it's no use 
fighting it to a finish — and where will we be? Done for, licked, 
finished ; thousands of dead for nothing — all because the people at 
home hadn't the guts to stick it out!" 

In other words this war will be won when all have given their time, 
their money, and if necessary their lives to the cause. Multiply all the 
latent ability and resources of each person by 100,000,000 and what will 
we have? The Kaiser in exile. If we don't, he may decide to move his 
capital to Washington. 

n. 

Are Women Needed in Industry Now ? 

We will need women in industry, of that there can be no question. 
Do we need them now? My study does not indicate this, but it does in- 
dicate conclusively, that later on we are going to need them in increasing 
numbers, and that now is the time to prepare and develop plans and policies, 
so that when we begin to properly utilize their abilites, we will be able to 
proceed along logical, fair and well planned lines. 

The reason that we do not need women in industry now, is simply be- 
cause we are not using our man power to the extent possible, nor as efifi- 
ciently as we can. In this connection, the following letter will prove in- 
teresting: 

Dear Mr. Knoeppel : 

This afternoon on the Century I have read and reread your 
wonderful article "American Industry Needs Women," in the 
December issue of "100 Per Cent." 

And reading, I have reflected. 



L ABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIO NS 37 

At lunch today, a man checked my hat, another served my 
food, another man removed the dishes — and still another brought 
my cigar. 

Yet we pretend we are organized for war. 

After lunch a man shaved me and another man shined my 
shoes — while I read a paper sold me by a man who might have 
been, should have been, SHOULD BE at war. A man carried my 
bag, to the sidewalk, another man opened the door of a man-driven 
taxi to take me to my train. A man opened the taxi and another 
man grabbed my bag; a man sold me my ticket and another man 
examiined it. On the train TWO men took up the ticket, and a 
polite young man who might be, SHOULD BE fighting, is typing 
this outburst to you. 

Yet we pretend we are organized for war. 

Shatter the pretense if you can and will. Shatter it, some one 
MUST — or we never can win the war. 

As I am beginning to see it, Mr. Knoeppel, the fate of the na- 
tion, indeed the fate of all the world, hangs on the seventeen men 
who served me today; these seventeen, and seventeen hundred, 
seventeen thousand, seventeen million others like them. 

These men must give way. They must be displaced or re- 
placed. And those who are replaced must be, and will be replaced, 
by Woraien. 

Men who are able and who have no dependents must 
FIGHT. Those of us who are less able or who have dependents 
must feed and clothe the fighters; and we must permit and en- 
courage and HELP the women of the land to take up the tasks 
which they are anxious and ready to undertake, and for most of 
of which they are eminently fitted. 

Yours very truly, 

(Signed) R. C. WADSWORTH 

Let us discuss this question of man power for a moment. In our 
jails are men who under guard could be put to work, either in in- 
dustrial or agricultural pursuits. Elderly men who have retired, unless 
physically unable could perform work of a lighter character in shops and 
offices. There is still in this country, a greater degree of unemployment 
than is necessary and men who have nothing to do should be put to work. 
Tramps, street loafers and lounge lizards should be rounded up and put at 
productive occupations. Children from 12 to 16, both boys and girls, could 
be given something to do for part of their time each day. Workmen who 
take time off, because of high earnings, should be appealed to and kept 
busy, even if we have to resort to penalizing them for failure to report to 
work. Shifting of workers can be eliminated through joint action by the 
labor unions, manufacturers associations and the government. Men in cler- 
ical positions in office and shops, male waiters and elevator tenders, in 
hotels and clubs, pullman porters and conductors, taxi drivers and porters 
at the depots, and thousands of men in all walks of life whose work is not 
of a hard physical variety could be utilized to advantage in the annv, in 
shops and on farms. ' We could take the cripples, and the blind and teach 



38 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

them to be helpful — we have got to do it after the war — why not now? 
Then also there are several million of male and female enemy aliens who 
could be placed at some form of work, under guards. We can also arrange 
for a carefully worked out and properly executed plan of labor dilution, 
wherein a portion of the force in an efficient shop would be placed at the 
disposal of a less efficient plant. This by no means exhausts the list of 
places where men could be found, whose places or most of them, could be 
filled by women. 

In short, my claim is that we should first use the women in the lighter 
occupations in order to utilize our man power properly and avoid exploit- 
ing women, or putting them at industrial work, before industry is ready 
for them, and my analysis indicates that industry is not ready for them as 
yet. By ready, I mean providing safeguards, proper training, careful selec- 
tion and the like. 

This leads me to the conclusion, that we need a policy, a plan of action, 
with the government behind it, and organized labor and the manufacturers 
of the country co-operating to the fullest. Mere argument and logical 
reasoning will not bring this about, but the experience of Great Britain 
with reference to women in industry, may be instrumental in focusing our 
attention on the methods to pursue in going about this task. 

III. 

The Experience of Great Britain 

That it takes 6V2 persons in shops, on farms, in mines and on rail- 
roads to maintain a soldier, is sufficient evidence that military success de- 
pends entirely upon industrial success, and that unless there is industrial 
efficiency, of the highest order in this war, our part in its winning will be 
both weak and ineffective. 

As yet we have not struck our stride industrially. A great deal re- 
mains to be done to get both capital and labor to cooperate, not only with 
each other, but both with the government. 

The greatest sacrifices that will be made in this war will be on the 
part of labor. Not only will the great army at the front be drafted mostly 
from the ranks of labor, but the labor that mans the factories at home and 
supplies the products of war, will be called on for sacrifice. Will it not 
require sacrifice on the part of labor to see their places taken by women, 
with the possibility that the pay for the work may be reduced on this ac- 
count? Will it not require sacrifice to work at night, so that the women 
can work on the day shifts, and in some cases to work longer hours because 
due to the shortage of labor, it will be necessary, in order to keep the boys 
at the front supplied with munitions? Labor will be called on for sacri- 
fices, and labor will make them willingly for its countiy's cause, but labor 
will not have sacrifices imposed on it by others. 

We can well consider the lesson that England was forced to learn. 
When the war started, plans were made for the making of the necessary 
munitions with the depleted working force, by using the labor of women 
and by longer hours, overtime work, and by speeding up production which 
had previously been strictly limited by the rules of the powerful English 
labor unions. When the plans were completed and all that remained was 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 39 

to tell labor what it had to do, what was the surprise and consternation 
caused when labor squashed all the nice plans, by simply sitting down and 
refusing to work under the conditions imposed. There was much talk on 
the lack of patriotism on the part of labor, though thousands of those who 
have laid down their lives for England were drawn from its ranks. Then 
the idea finally seeped in, that it would be very necessary to ask labor what 
it was willing to do, what it would please do, before making any more 
plans. 

The seriousness of the situation is vividly shown by the speech of 
Lloyd-George, to the British workmen on December 25, 1915, in which he 
said : 

"Either we must tell the soldiers that we are sorry that we 
cannot get the guns to enable them to win throughout 1916, owing 
to the trade-union regulations, or we must tell them that if they 
manage to hold out for another year perhaps American workmen 
will help us to get sufficient supply for 1917. I cannot return to 
Parliament and report through the House of Commons to the 
British Army that skilled workmen won't suspend their rules to 
save their fellow countrymen's lives on the battlefield." 
The press of the world was quick to condemn the attitude of the Brit- 
ish workmen, but while there was little that was commendable in their 
action, still it is probable that their attitude was largely due to the methods 
which were used in dealing with them, and which made them feel that the 
heaviest sacrifice of the war was being imposed upon them by those whose 
burden was light, without taking into consideration at all labor's own feel- 
ings in the matter. This conclusion is justified by the later action of labor, 
after it had been taken into the councils of the government, in which the 
workers made what was for them the supreme sacrifice for the cause of 
their country, in placing all their hard earned rights, privileges and re- 
strictions on output, on the altar of the War God, and enabled the employ- 
ers to dilute labor, to use women, install automatic machinery, that the 
men at the front might have shells, ammunition and other things needed 
in war. 

How did England bring this about? It's a story in itself, but I will 
let Miss Frances A. Kellor place a concise description before you, as taken 
from her address "Industrial Americanization." 

"Let us go for a moment to England, and see what she has built, and 
what an inspiring thing it is in its vision and power and justice and com- 
prehension. 

"First of all she defined munitions work to cover the manufacture and 
repair of everything intended, adapted or suitable for use in war, including 
even housing of workmen. The result is that she has little difficulty today 
defining non-essential and essential industries. 

"A next important step was the suspension of trade customs; it is 
provided that any rule, practice or custom, which has not the sanction ol" 
the law, which tends to restrict production or employment is suspended. 
whether it is a general trade practice, a custom or a local shop rule. If 
there is controversy it- goes to arbitration. Even matters of contract are 



40 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

included. This means any man can work at any job, skilled or unskilled, 
that women can be employed and all shops are open shops. 

"At the same time unions were protected. It is also provided that 
any departure during the war from any practice prevailing prior to the 
war shall be only for the period of war; that preference shall be given 
after the war to those employed prior to the war, that time and piece rates 
shall be maintained, that a record of departure from practices shall be 
kept. 

"A very important action was the establishment of controlled indus- 
tries. The minister of munitions has power to declare any establishment 
or part thereof adapted for use in w^ar or suitable for war uses a controlled 
industry. In every such establislmient the government takes all excess 
profits which are the net profits as they exceed by one-fifth the standard 
profits, which is the average for the two years preceding the war. li this 
is not satisfactory a separate agreement may be reached. 

"At the same time wages were limited in such establishments and 
when an employee changes from one to another where the rate is lower he 
is given a bonus to cover the difi:erence. Where he is away from home he 
is often allowed a sum for living and is given a reduced fare to go home 
holidays and week-ends. Workmen dismissed with less than a week's 
notice may receive compensation. Workmen idle for a period of more 
than two days when they have had no opportunity in the establishment to 
earn wages may receive compensation. 

If workmen will agree to stay in such a controlled establishment for 
six months they are designated as munitions volunteers and get the stand- 
ard rate of wages, and certain insignia of honor. They may be, hovv^ever, 
penalized for violation. 

"Employers are prohibited from soliciting by advertising or from in- 
ducing workmen in other industries to leave their work. As the certificate 
of. leaving has been abolished there is no need to discuss it here. 

"There are boards that handle the dilution of labor for each industry 
and the mixing of skilled and unskilled workers and of women is carefully 
done, the prevailing rates for the job being protected. 

"Strikes and lockouts have been made practically impossible. All 
such controversies go to the Trade Board. If it fails to deal with them, 
they go to the arbitration boards. The law not only deals with all con- 
certed action involving a stoppage of work, but it reaches the instigator 
of a strike by penalizing any person who attempts to impede, delay, or re- 
strict production, repair or transport of war material or any other work 
necessary, for the successful prosecution of the war. The award of the 
Arbitration Board is final. 

"Certain specified industries are protected in calling out men for the 
front. 

"A complete system of labor exchanges (nearly 400) is in operation. 
Each one has a board which deals with the problems as they arise and 
acting in an advisory capacity. There are no competing private agencies, 
and local boards are well informed of local needs and these exchanges con- 
trol the field. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 41 

"With the building of this structure, England has found time to make 
studies of fatigue, to protect women, to put government agents in plants 
to look after the conservation of man-power, to have billeting committees 
to find lodging for workers, to conduct industrial canteens and to do count- 
less other things for workers." 

What has been the result? An industrial efficiency in Great Britain 
undreamed of by the most radical efficiency crank and which has been one 
of the most important factors in enabling that nation to play such an im- 
portant part in the conduct of the war so far. Great Britain has out Ger- 
maned, German efficiency. 

Let us consider for a few moments some of the experiences out of the 
English books, especially with reference to women labor. In a country 
having less than 50,000,000 population, there are, according to Helen 
Eraser 

1,250,000 women in industry replacing men 
1,000,000 women in munitions making 

80,000 women in government departments 
250,000 women on farms 
10,000 women per month joining the women's Army Auxiliary 

Corps. 
60,600 women in volunteer Red Cross Work. 

It takes from 6 to 8 weeks to make the average English woman fit for 
the simpler operations on shells, shellparts and fuses, while the more intel- 
ligent in this line becomes lathe hands and tool setters. The British Gov- 
ernment has established 50 training schools since the war and thousands 
of women are being schooled in industrial acitivities. In addition most of 
the large plants have training classes of their own. 

The great Gwynnes, Ltd. works employ a large number of women and 
in describing what they do in the manufacture of aeroplanes, I. William 
Chubb, in "American Machinist" says : 

"In certain factories there are about 1800 employees, of whom 700 are 
women. The women enter and leave at the same time as the men, a one- 
break day being worked, with a quarter of an hour rest in each shift, giv- 
ing an opportunity in the afternoon for the tea interval which has generally 
been found so valuable in connection with the employment of women in 
England. As to pay, the piece rates for men and women are alike, and 
put generally, the women are not segregated, but take their places in the 
shops beside the men and are permitted to undertake any operation for 
which they are found capable. As timekeeper they are at least equal to 
the males. Rest rooms are of course provided, and, somewhat unusually, 
the men and women use the same eating rooms. 

"The works are run strictly according to a planning system, and prog- 
ress girls are employed in the shops. At one works the stores are kept 
sucessf ully and completely by women ; they even become head storekeepers. 

"In erecting, stripping down and re-erecting the engines a woman is 
in each gang, the proportion in the erecting shop being one woman to two 
men. In the carburizing section the plating is done by women, but here 
a man is in charge. Similarly in the heat-treatment department, while a 



42 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

man is in charge, women are employed on the smaller pieces for such work 
as reheating, plunging, etc. Women, too, are engaged for inspection pur- 
poses. 

"For machining and other operations the women are actually trained in 
the shops, standing by and watching the operation of machines, etc. This 
is preferred to the instruction of women in schools, even when the school 
is in the works, as the women thus quickly become accustomed to the gen- 
eral shop atmosphere and conditions; and in particular they are found to 
appreciate more readily the value and need for care in the use of precision 
tools, gauges, etc., an advantage which the semi-skilled laborer often lacks. 
As is fairly common, the women are found quick in learning one particular 
operation, perhaps more so than men ; but they do not change readily from 
one operation to another. In short, it is not usually found commercially 
expedient to attempt to shift them. 

"Setting up is commonly done by men, with few exceptions. The fac- 
tory is run almost throughout with single-operation machines even the or- 
dinary lathe being so used. The product of the automatic has not been 
found sufficiently accurate to pass the official inspection." 

In England women are receiving honors for deeds of their own — as, 
for instance — 

Martha Branhall — For courage in remaining continuously at a very 
dangerous task, in spite of the occurrence of several explosions. 

Edna Goodenough — For continuing to work after suffering serious 
injuries from an explosion resulting in the loss of the right eye. 

Nora Morphet—For courage and high example in continuously work- 
ing long hours in a poisonous atmosphere, which habitually affected her 
health. 

Agnes Mary Peters — For great courage and high example in continu- 
ing to do work of an exceptionally dangerous nature, which finally resulted 
in an accident by which she was made totally blind and otherwise injured. 

It is said that King Edward and Queen Mary once made a tour of the 
munition factories, and in one of the danger zones the King asked a girl 
whose faced was seamed with scars if she had had an accident. She re- 
plied that she had been blown up three times. The King told her that she 
was a plucky girl and her reply was that she had a brother "over there." 

As regards the ability of the women workers, note the following from 
the "New York Sun" of March 9th. 

"British women have clearly demonstrated their superiority over men 
in the manufacture of gun shells. Sixty-one per cent of all the shell mak- 
ers in Great Britain are women and this dilution of labor is continuing 
rapidly, it was stated officially here today. It is found that the greater the 
percentage of women the greater the output. 

"The forthcoming monthly bulletin of the Bureau of Labor Statistics 
shows that in a ten-hour day women are able to turn out twenty-four nine- 
inch shells, whereas ten or eleven is the average for men." 

In England it was found that a great deal of the work in connection 
with the army behind the men at the front, was carried on by men, such 
as keeping books, clerical work, developing and printing photographs, tele- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 43 

phone work, telegraphing, sorting mail, forwarding packages and many 
other civilian tasks which an army has to carry on. 

The English organized a Women's League for National Service, ask- 
ing that the Government turn over to them some of the civilian work at 
that time performed by soldiers. 

Today there are thousands of women cooking for the men in the army 
camps. 

All over France you find women dressed in khaki and soft hats, wear- 
ing the insignia "W. A. A. C." for the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, 
the "Waacs" as they are called and the work of this wonderful organiza- 
tion, now a part of the War Office and a branch of the army, rivals that of 
the Red Cross. 

Rhetta Childe Dorr, writing in the New York Evening Mail of this 
organization, said — "The first day I visited Devonshire House, the draft 
for France, which I was assured was average, called for — 
29 clerks 
10 cooks 
10 waitresses 

1 motor car driver 

2 telegraph operators. 

"All were promptly supplied, as a matter of course, and a few hours 
later the women, saluting smartly, left for France, packs on backs, exactly 
like soldiers. This remarkable organization was recruited by the Govern- 
ment at the rate of 10,000 a month, the plan being to mobilize 250,000 
women to release the men for fighting. 

"It is expected that when the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps is re- 
cruited to full strength it will have released more than ten army divisions 
for the actual work of fighting. Women are wanted as printers, binders 
and folders in military print shops ; as grooms and assistants in military 
veterinary stations; as gardeners, shoemakers, packers, checkers, messen- 
gers, sewers, bakers, and as forewomen for all sorts of workers. Women 
are even doing acetyline welding, think of it, you men who know what 
welding is." 

In appendix B you will find a list of the work being done by women in 
the various British Industries while in appendix D you will have an oppor- 
tunity to review the steps taken to protect and safeguard labor that it 
might operate at maximum efficiency, I can promise you reading both 
profitable and interesting. 

IV. 
Our Experience to Date. 

My studies of the labor situation indicate : 

1. That we are passing through the same experience that Great Brit- 
ain passed through during the first year of the war. 

2. That we have no well defined plan or program with reference to 
either male or female labor. 

3. That there has not been the proper three-sided co-operation be- 
tween employer, emplcfyee and the Govcniment. 



44 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



We have had strikes, "Colliers" stating that 64 typical strikes meant 
a loss of 1,795,900 working days, equivalent to an army of 60,000 men on 
strike for 30 days. 

We still have competition between manufacturers for workers. About 
this Mr. Hurley of the Shipping Board said : 

"We sent two tourist: sleeping cars loaded with men for the Western 
Shipyards a short while ago, and we were asked to give them priority to 
get them out there. And these eastern Shipyards went out there and em- 
ployed riveters away from those veiy yards on the Pacific Coast." 

We have had to resort to a national campaign of advertising to get 
shipworkers. We put enemy aliens outside of prescribed zones, without 
creating any efficient machinery for putting them in productive occupation. 
We have withdrawn men from industry by the thousands without any real 
program for replacing them. There are state and city employment bu- 
reaus; trade union and manufacturers association employment bureaus, 
and in addition, about 5000 private employment agencies. Employers say 
they cannot get help and must resort to women labor. Organized labor 
replies that there is no shortage of labor. 

I am not saying the above in a spirit of criticism. In the hard work 
we have put in this investigation we have had but one thing in mind — 
constructiveness. It is well to know the true situation, however, that we 
may fully appreciate the problems confronting us and effect a solution. 
This we must do if we are to win the war, and the winning of the war li^ 
not a debatable subject. 

The Council of National Defense has a Woman's Committee, of which 
Dr. Anna Howard Shaw is Chairman. Under this Committee is a "De- 
partment of Women in Industry," of which Mrs. James A. Field is Execu- 
tive Chairman. The Department of Labor has a Woman's Division of 
which Hilda Muhlhauser Richards is Chief. The Ordnance Department 
has a Woman's Division of which Mary Van Kleeck is in charge. Secre- 
tary of Labor recently appointed an Advisory Council made up of repre- 
sentatives of both capital and labor, with Agnes Nestor of Chicago as the 
representative of women. 

Let us consider for a moment what these various bodies are to do. In 
a letter we received dated March 9th, Mrs. James A. Field, Executive 
Chairman of the "Department of Women in Industry," of the Council of 
National Defense, says : 

"The work of the Woman's Committee in reference to women in in- 
dustry is centered in their Department of Women in Industry. The aim 
of the Woman's Committee in all its work is to co-ordinate the activities of 
the women of the country and serve as a channel of communication between 
them and the Government. The Department of Women in Industry tries 
to accomplish this in its particular field through State Departments of 
Women in Industry which have been established in every state as part of 
the Woman's Committee of each state. These departments are headed by 
women who have had some experience or in some way are especially quali- 
fied to handle problems of women in industry with reference to the public 
and to other organizations of women. Work of the departments has so 
far confined itself mainly to assisting in the maintenance of standards for 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 45 

working women; to informing the public what standards should be; and 
in some instances to making surveys or investigations of women's work. 
This latter function we expect now will be largely taken over by the Women 
in Industry Service which is to be established in the new War Labor Ad- 
ministration. There will, however, still be much that the state depart- 
ments can do — especially in the field of maintaining standards." 

The Women's Division of the Department of Labor is to cover the fol- 
lowing, as outlined by Secretary of Labor Wilson. 

1. "A means of furnishing an adequate and stable supply of labor to 
war industries. 

2. Machinery which will provide for the inmiediate and equitable 
adjustment of disputes in accordance with principles to be agreed upon be- 
tween labor and capital and without stoppage of work. 

3. Machinery for safeguarding conditions of labor in the production 
of war essentials. 

4. Machinery for safeguarding conditions of living. 

5. Fact gathering body to assemble and present data for effective 
executive action. 

6. Information and education division to develop sound pxiblic senti- 
ment and exchange of information between departments of labor admin- 
istration.** 

The work of the Woman's Division of the Ordnance Department is 
best expressed by Mary Van Kleeck, in the New York Post, as follows : 

"The Women's Division of the Ordnance Department is an integral 
part of the Industrial Service Section, guided by the same policies, and 
working with and through the other divisions. It will have its specialists 
in employment management, in housing as it affects women workers, and 
in adjustments, and these will work with the corresponding divisions of 
the Industrial Service Section. It will have an important branch on the 
health of women workers. Its field work will be handled through district 
supervisors assigned to the large munitions areas where women are em- 
ployed. These supervisors will be stationed in the local offices of the pro- 
duction division of the Ordnance Department." 

The work to be covered by the War Labor Administration of which 
Agnes Nestor represents women is — 

'*1. A means of furnishing an adequate and stable supply of labor to 
war industries to include: 

(a) A satisfactory system of labor exchanges. 

(b) A satisfactory method and administration of training of work- 
ers. 

(c) An agency for determining priorities of labor demand. 

(d) Agencies for dilution of skilled labor as and when needed. 

2. Machinery which will provide for the immediate and equitable ad- 
justment of disputes in accordance with principles to be agreed upon be- 
tween labor and capital and without stoppage of work. Such machinery 
would deal with demands concerning wages, hours, shop conditions, etc. 

3. Machinery for safeguarding conditions of labor in the production 
of war essentials. This to include industrial hygiene, safety, women and 
child labor, etc. 



46 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



4. Machinery for safeguarding conditions of living, including hous- 
ing, transportation, etc. 

5. A fact-gathering body to assemble and present data, collected 
through various existing government agencies or by independent research, 
to furnish the information necessary for effective action. 

6. Information and education division, which has the functions of 
developing sound public sentiment, securing an exchange of information 
between departments of labor administration, and promotion in industrial 
plants of local machinery helpful in carrying out the national labor pro- 
gram." 

If this War Labor Administration recently appointed is to be the 
clearing house for all matters pertaining to labor problems and to women 
in industry ; if it can plan and coordinate the work of other sections ; if it 
has authority to get results instead of being another advisory body, I can 
see great things ahead, as our replies to the questionnaire clearly indicated, 
that manufacturers were not acting in a concerted manner nor along well 
planned lines. One manufacturer wrote in and dismissed the entire sub- 
ject by advising that we import 5,000,000 Chinamen. Needless to say his 
letter received scant consideration. On the other hand, R. H. Sotherland, 
of the Mansfield Tire and Rubber Co., Mansfield, Ohio, had this to say: 

"Real American men have always placed the women of their country 
on a pedestal, as examples of refinement and culture, protecting them 
against the ravages wrought by extraordinary manual labor, which was 
a part of the original American woman, the squaw of the Great American 
Indian. Are we going to step back a decade in our boasted civilization and 
place the woman of America on a par with the peasantry of Germany, 
Austria-Hungary and numerous other foreign countries, in a way that it 
will develop for the future the heavy ox-eyed beast of burden so common 
in foreign countries and becoming common on the streets of American 
cities through our weak immigration laws? Is it not enough to ask the 
women of America to bear children and suffer the pangs of maternity and 
rear their offspring to the actualities of life that each one must face and 
prepare their boys to be real men." 

L. H. Colburn, general manager of the Colburn Machine Tool Com- 
pany, after reading our questionnaire, wrote to "Industrial Management" 
as follows: 

"In the writer's opinion, based on recent experience, the principal diffi- 
culty in employing women is the attitude of the labor unions. To illus- 
trate: The Colburn Machine Tool Company has a large and splendidly 
equipped plant located in a small city where the living conditions are of 
the best. There is plenty of sunshine, good air, beautiful surroundings 
such as trees, grass and flower beds, in fact everything to make working 
conditions pleasant. We work eight hours a day, pay time-and-one-half 
for overtime and double time for Sunday work. 

"We pay the highest wages to machinists and other labor, but in spite 
of this we have been greatly handicapped on account of not being able to 
get sufficient help. We are now and have been "full up" for about three 
years with important war business. 

"We exhausted all our efforts to get additional men ; we advertised in 
the newspapers for hundreds of miles around ; we sent employment agents 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 47 

to the large cities, we offered our workmen bonuses for getting additional 
men — but all to little purpose. Finally, last July we decided to start to 
employ women in some of the departments of our plant. We had never 
employed women in the shop before, but made a careful investigation first 
and went around to plants in other cities where they were employing 
women sucessfully and got ideas on the subject. 

"We decided that we could use about 50 women on our work, putting 
them on small machines, light bench work, fitting, etc. We made inquiries 
and found that we could get all the women we wanted, in fact, they wel- 
comed the idea because, for one thing, we resolved from the start that we 
would pay them just as much as we paid men for the same work. 

"About that time we commenced to hear rumors of objections on the 
part of our men employees belonging to the machinists union, and finally 
we were notified that a committee representing them wanted to see us. We 
received the committee and found that they were unalterably opposed to our 
employing women in the shop in any capacity. They were afraid that the 
women if once admitted would, after the war, keep the places which they 
claimed rightfully belonged to men. No amount of arguing would change 
them in their stand. 

"Rather than have any trouble we gave up the idea of employing 
women for the present." 

Frank Morrison, Secretary of the American Federation of Labor, does 
not believe that there is a shortage of labor. In a letter to me he said : 

"Your very first question *How are we going to find the immense army 
of women needed' opens up a wide field for discussion that could not be 
answered in a few words. In what field are women needed? Should they 
be placed on street cars, lumber mills, machine shops and on the rail- 
roads? 

"This question might also convey the impression that there is a labor 
shortage, which is agreed to by labor conscriptionists, women exploiters 
and advocates of Oriental Labor. The trade union movement dissents 
from this assumption and insists that labor mobilization will remedy a con- 
dition that is charged as *a shortage of labor.* " 

Peter J. Brady, President, New York State Allied Printing Trades 
Council, in an article "Women's War Work and Men," which appeared in 
the New York "Evening Post," has this to say : 

"There has been much publicity during the past few months to the 
effect that owing to the requirements of men for the war there is a scarcity 
of labor, and therefore women are urged to fill these vacancies. This is 
an absolute falsehood, brazenly stated with deliberate intention to deceive 
the public and defraud the unfortunate women. There are probably more 
people out of employment now than at any time during the past two years." 

In a letter to organized labor under date of January 1st, Samuel 
Gompers says : 

"War means victory for our cause or danger to the very existence of 
our nation. With our nation at stake, individuals cannot interpose ob- 
tions to the war — a war declared by the will of the nation's representa- 
tives." To this everyone will heartily subscribe. But further on in his 
letter he says : 



48 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

"While this is true, there is even more than ordinary need for the 
maintenance of the rights of men and women, and for careful scrutiny 
and the fullest discussion of policies and methods before their adoption. 

"The time for labor to interpose its needs and contentions is while 
policies are in the making." 

To this we only partially subscribe. I agree fully with President Wil- 
son and Secretaiy Baker, that we must protect and safeguard our workers, 
especially our women and children. I go on record by saying that we do 
not need women in industry now, if present man power can be made more 
efficient and we can recruit men from the lighter occupations. I go on rec- 
ord by also saying that in all discussions of plans and policies governing 
labor during war times, labor should be represented. 

But this is no time for a debate of labor rights or the rights of capital, 
nor is it a time for a discussion of your rights or my rights. The question 
squarely before the countiy, which we — 100,000,000 of us — must answer 
NOW is — luill ive he free people or a vassal people? If I have an aching 
tooth and a blood poisoned arm to the shoulder, no discussion is necessary 
as regards what to do first. I want to see labor have a greater industrial 
liberty, more say in the conduct of business and gi'eater earnings than ever 
before, but first I want to see this war won, and not by Germany, in which 
event the rights of all of us would be taken care of by that philosophy called 
German Kultur. 

There have, of course, been abuses of the opportunity to utilize women 
labor, as indicated by the following statement by Miss Pauline Goldmark 
concerning an investigation she made of a factory in Zanesville, Ohio : 

"The majority of women at this plant are engaged at hard labor such 
as loading scrap iron, sorting scrap iron, wheeling iron castings in wheel- 
barrows, etc. The women loading scrap, and sorting the same, work out 
in the yards, with no protection from the intense rays of the sun or weather. 
These women wear overalls and large brim hats. They hand the iron up 
from the ground to others in the cars, who pile it. The hours are nine 
hours a day, fift^^-four hours a week, and one-half hour for luncheon, wages 
20 cents an hour and SL50 deducted each month for relief puiiDOses. Men 
are given 21 cents an hour for labor of the same class." 

A woman conductor in the car lines in New York City has this to say 
regarding her experiences : 

"As to what the work is like. It's no w^ork for any girl. It's a jnan's 
job. I don't mean because of the actual work. It's the conditions, the life, 
the hours, and the davs. To be exact, I work from one o'clock in the after- 
noon until 3:35, and from 7:19 in the evening until 2:29 in the mormng. 
This doesn't sound bad, but what really happens is this: I get up at 11 
o'clock in the morning and have breakfast. I say, 'Goodbye m'm, see you 
16 hours later!' Then I may work until 3 :30 o'clock, but more likely, like 
tonight, I will work until nearly six with no more food. You must work 
overtime or be suspended. A girl was suspended yesterday because she 
has two children and had to be home, so she refused to work two hours 
overtime. , , 

"What time I have before 7 :19, when I go on again, I stay at the barn 
in the rest-room, sewing or knitting. I get dinner there for 25 cents. You 
can imagine what the dinner is like for that, but we don't like to go out 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 49 

in our uniforms, so we just eat it there. The rest-room is no fit place to 
spend your free time, not a clean place, — basins, toilets, garbage cans — a 
few benches. But what else can you do ? You can't make an engagement, 
for you never know when you will have to do overtime. Only yesterday I 
hung around four hours between my regular runs and refused to go out 
with a girl. When I reported I was told I had no motorman and to go 
home. Of course, I was not paid for the time I lost. Then today I made 
a date, and had to work overtime." 

A labor paper "The American Federationalist" is much concerned over 
the possibility of an uncontrolled use of women labor. It says : 

"In Cleveland between 75 and 100 women are running Bradley ham- 
mers in one shop. Women are wiping engines in the round house at Akron, 
Ohio ; many are running engines in the machine shop and doing other la- 
borious work around large manufacturing plants. One woman has been 
employed by the Baltimore & Ohio railroad as a shop hand ; she packs jour- 
nal boxes, which are on the axles of wheels and must be filled with waste 
and oil. Flag women have appeared on railroads. Women are employed 
in the foundry trade, in machine shops and munition plants. One lumber- 
yard in Chicago is reported to be employing women to handle lumber. 
Truly there can be no justification for employing women with so little dis- 
crimination. We cannot disguise the fact that during the progress of the 
war women may be employed in constantly increasing numbers, but surely 
our nation has enough intelligence to see that women are not employed in 
handling Bradley hammers and doing the roughest sort of manual labor 
for which they are physically unfit." 

On the other hand there are some bright examples of the successful 
use of woman labor as will be found in the experiences contained in Ap- 
pendix E. These however are more or less isolated cases and the proposi- 
tions were worked out by the concerns themselves rather than being the 
result of a comprehensive labor program. 

It was because we felt that women labor in industry was not needed 
now ; it was because of conditions such as above described ; it was because 
we do have both radical labor leaders and autocratic manufacturers; it 
was because some plan and policy should be developed, that we decided to 
make this survey that we might assist in a small way in the proper utiliza- 
tion of both man power and our woman power. 

V. 
Rei)ort Covering Analysis of Questionnaire. 

With a long war confronting us, calling for our utmost efforts to win 
it, it is apparent that we will have to call upon women in increasing num- 
bers. It is further evident as one studies the subject, that we do not need 
women in industry to any great extent, at this time, but what we do is 
a plan for properly handling the proposition, when the need for women in 
industrial plants becomes pressing. 

In other words, we must first use our man power to the fullest and as 
efficiently as possible; then take men from the lighter occupations, sub- 
stituting women, and .then call upon the women for industrial work, during 



50 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

all of which time we should be so shaping things, that women may be able 
to work to best advantage when the call comes. 

One principle which should be given consideration in the matter of 
using women is as follows : 

Most of the women who wiU go into industry are the future 
mothers of the race and the wives of our sons and must not be 
exploited. 
Another which must be adhered to in safeguarding our women is : 

There must be no charity about what is done nor must the 
attitude towards them be one of patronizing. 

With these in mind, we can proceed to the matter of our question- 
naire. As you may recall, the questions which first appeared in "100 per 
cent" for December last, were as follows: 

1. How are we going to find the immense army of women needed ? 

2. What basis shall we use for selecting women for industrial 
work? 

3. What efforts shall we make to provide clean, wholesome 
living conditions? 

4. What changes will we have to make to provide proper working 
conditions ? 

5. What social conditions will we have to provide? 

6. What hours should women work and how about rest periods, 
fatigue and the Hke? 

7. How will we arrange to subdivide and arrange the operations 
so that women can efficiently perform them ? 

8. How will we train women and who will do it? 

9. What steps will be necessary to induce the full co-operation of 

a — labor unions? 

b — organizations of women ? 

c — our government? 

10. What steps should be taken to change and unify the state 
laws with reference to woman labor? 

11. How shall we adjust and arrange the wages of women? 

12. What will we do with reference to woman labor after the 
war? 

In other words, these questions had to do with location, selection and 
training of women; conditions — working, living and social; the work to 
be done by women ; hours, fatigue and wages ; existing laws ; co-operation 
of the labor unions, women's organizations and the government and the 
Post-Bellum factor, all of which are essential considerations in any in- 
telligent presentation of the subject. 

The questionnaire attracted no little attention and we understand that 
it will be a subject for discussion at the next meeting of the Industrial 
Betterment Committee, of the National Association of Manufacturers. A 
great many requests have already been made for the conclusions, includ- 
ing government officials interested in the subject. 

The answers were both a revelation and a disappointment. A revela- 
tion, in that the general trend was altruistic, big-minded, clean and thor- 
oughly American, showing conclusively that organized labor has nothing 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 51 

to fear from the manufacturing world on this question of women in indus- 
try. A disappointment, in that there was evidence of lack of plan, no co- 
ordinated action and lack of co-operation, so necessary in the successful 
use of women in our factories. 

To place the results of this investigation before you in the most logical 
order, it was decided to re-arrange the subjects as follows: 

A — The Work to be Performed by Women. 

B — Find the Women. 

C — Selection of Women. 

D — Training Women. 

E — Wages, Hours and Fatigue. 

F — Working Conditions. 

G — Living and Social Conditions. 

H — State Laws. 

I — Co-operation of — 

1 — Labor Unions. 

2 — Women's Organizations. 

3 — Government. 

J — Post-Bellum Consideration. 

Let us now consider each in their order — 

A — The Work to be Performed by Women. 

It was clearly evident from the answers received that manfacturers 
had no well-defined views as regards what work women should be called 
upon to do, nor where they would put them if necessity forced them to 
emiploy women. It was apparent, however, that this was the first point 
of attack, for how could we look for a person to do something which had 
not been defined or outlined as a task to be performed? We could not 
say — "here is a job, let's find a woman to do it.'* 

A study of the answers did disclose, however, the essentials to con- 
sider, which, if placed together and co-ordinated would furnish a plan of 
action. 

As regards work to be done by women, a few felt that it would be 
unnecessary to subdivide operations, first because women had proven 
themselves more efficient than men, and second, because proper training 
and supervision would be all that would be necessary to secure productive- 
ness from women. 

The consensus of opinion, however, was that work should be studied 
with the view to subdivision, in order that women might perform the 
lighter and less complex tasks and men the heavier and more complicated 
work — in other words, to determine the class of work in each shop or in- 
dustry that women could both safely and efficiently perform. 

To do this quickly and profitably, it was suggested that a Planning 
Department be organized in each plant, which could make scientific opera- 
tion studies of the different kinds of work or operations, and in conjunction 
with the Superintendent and Department Heads, classify the work women 
could do. 

As an excellent cooperative measure, it was also suggested that use 
be made of district Factoiy Inspectors or women physicians, or both, in de- 
termining what women could do, or better yet, what they cojild not do. 



52 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



As part of the program, it was felt that the mechanical phases of fac- 
tory work should receive careful attention — hoists and conveyers to be 
utilized to eliminate unnecessary Ufting and handling; development ot 
mechanical devices — jigs, tools and fixtures, — looking towards making- 
work simpler and easier to do; development of single purpose machines, 
both semi-automatic and automatic. In connection it was suggested that 
investigations should be made of laborious operations performed by men, 
with the view to developing labor saving tools, and then use female labor. 

It was also thought that insofar as might be practical, machinery 
should be rearranged so women could be worked in groups. Further, 
women should be given different things to do during the day, to avoid 
over-specialization and to relieve the monotony which inevitably follows, 
when a person does the same thing day in and day out. 

Men should set up work excepting in cases where rigging machinery 
is a comparatively simple and easy task. It was felt that a safe rule to 
follow in determining what women could do, would be — 

a — Experienced men for difficult and complicated work. 

b — Laborers for heavy manual work. 

c — Women for light, simple or semi-complicated operations with men 
setting up the work. 

For instance, one field where women could work to advantage would 
be tool making, a line of work which calls for the very qualifications 
women possess — neatness, accuracy, precision, dexterity and quickness. 

In other words, an analysis of work, based on a consideration of the 
above fundamentals, would very quickly in each department, plant and in- 
dustry, determine what women could and could not do. 

A list of permissable operations for women could then be worked up, 
by the government or under government direction, and industry generally 
advised as to the field for women, along the lines followed in England. 

Appendix B will give a clear outline of the work women can do in 
England outside of strictly munitions work, which is covered to some ex- 
tent in Appendix D. 

B — Finding the Women. 

After determining the nature of work in industry, which women 
can perform with safety to their health and strength, the task becomes 
one of finding the women who are fitted to take up industrial occupations. 
Where are we to find them ? How are we to induce their consent to enter 
the factories? 

Analysis of the answers to the questions revealed that there were a 
number of avenues of approach. In the first place a great many felt that 
as we become more and more organized for war, the non-essential indus- 
tries, wherein women were employed, could contribute not a little to the 
supply of f empale labor, but whether or not this will lead to much, depends 
to a large extent on what the non-essential industries are and what the 
government's attitude is likely to be towards this great question of "busi- 
ness as usual.'' 

Unquestionably, a great many women could be recruited from the 
ranks of those known as household servants, for in this crisis we could 



LABOR PROBELMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 53 

do very easily without servants. Then there are the childless married 
women, who could serve all of their time, and the married women whose 
families have grown up and who could serve for part of their time. In the 
so-called idle and leisure class, many women could be found to assist as 
well as many unemployed women who would like to work. 

There is also the large number of wives and sisters of soldiers who 
have gone to camps or to the front. A large number of women from the 
rural districts, not directly engaged in agricultural pursuits, could also 
be recruited. We are using colored men, why not colored women under a 
colored matron? Then there are many weathy girls whose patriotism 
could be appealed to. By far, the largest number could be drav^Ti from 
the families and friends of those already employed in factories. At any 
rate a review indicates that there would be plenty of women to draw from 
if they are needed. 

The next point is how to induce them to enter industry. The 
consensus of opinion was that if wages for women are to be the same 
as paid men for the same work; if conditions are made both attractive 
and such that women can work without injury to their health, there 
would be no question about getting them to respond, should an appeal be 
generally made for women. 

It was felt that appeals could be made through — 

Women's organizations 

Schools 

Y. W. C. A. 

Epworth Leagues 

Catholic Societies 

Churches 

Factory Bulletins 

Moving pictures, showing women at industrial work 

Industrial exhibits showing through women, how factory 
work is done and what is made, women to be admitted free. 

Departments of Labor — state and national. 

Associations of Manufacturers. 

Editorial support by newspapers and magazines. 

Advertising, like the appeals to shipworkers and ord- 
nance workers 

Magazine and newspaper articles 

Public lectures 

Campaigns putting before the women of America, what 
the women of England have done. 

It was felt by several that the basis of the appeal should be to t^o 
place the matter before women, as to insure against their losing cast(? 
by going into the shops, that it would not be degi-ading work but big, 
patriotic, and a real help in this crisis. 

A number thought that women could be recruited the same as men are 
employed, through making it known that women were wanted and engaging 
the best of those who applied for work. 

It was felt by many that the Government, through the States, should 



54 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

take the work in hand; make a census or house to house canvass and 
recruit in this manner, and if the case gets really critical, to exercise the 
right of selective draft, for both men and women for industrial work. 

Still others were of the opinion that through women employment 
managers and the employment exchanges throughout the country, plenty 
of women could be located and induced to apply for work. One very good 
suggestion was to have the Government work through the National 
Chamber of Commerce, wherein labor, women and the manufacturers 
would have representation. Another suggestion was that a campaign 
like that of the Red Cross could be instituted and secure sufficient women 
workers for industry. 

C — Selection of Women Workers, 

Knowing the work that women can do in industry and having worked 
out plans for inducing women to apply for work, the next step is that 
out plans for inducing women to apply for work, the next step is that 
of selection. This question seems easy of solution according to the answers 
received — simply match qualifications against requirements. In other 
words, the task is one of determining character of work and select type of 
women who can do it, or to put it another way, find the women who can 
work and then train them. 

Several suggest both physical and mental examinations with tests for 
deftness, strain, fatigue and skill. 

Among the qualifications which should be considered, as taken from 
the answers are — 

Age 

Adaptability 

Past experience 

Type 

Nationality 

Education 

Physique 

Health 

Intelligence 

Strength 

Moral character 

Looks 

Geanliness 

Social standing 

General aptitude 
One suggested that women be tried at different tasks before determin- 
ing what they might best be suited for ; another that a list of the various 
kinds of work should be posted, showing the women the nature of the 
same as it is done in the shops, and let them select the kind they feel 
they are best fitted for. L 

Several felt that it was a matter to handle through women employ- 
ment managers and women supervisors, the same as men, only much 
more carefully. It was also felt that after employment, close supervision 
for from four to six weeks should be made to see to it that requirements 
and qualifications did match. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 55 

One very excellent idea was that women should be classified by local 
boards, not only with reference to physical and mental fitness, but home 
demands as well, and that employers should requisition these boards, on 
approved forms, stating kind of work, location of plant, conveniences for 
female labor, housing conditions and other important factors affecting 
women workers. 

It was felt by several that teachers should not be used in industry, 
unless absolutely necessary, as this would have a detrimental effect in 
educational work. It is further thought that some distinction should be 
made as between the family woman, the business woman and the scien- 
tific woman. 

In many cases women could take up the same work as their fathers, 
brothers and husbands, because of the ability of the men to assist and 
instruct the womien in mastering the various phases of the work they 
are familiar with. 

I>— Training the Women. 

Many of the women who apply for industrial work will be totally 
unfamiliar with factory work or the operation and handling of machineiy, 
so that the matter of training becomes doubly important. 

It will be necessary to organize a system of competent instruction, 
if the change to women employees is to be made rapidly and efficiently^, 
and the heavy loss in production, while they are learning, is to be reduced 
to a minimum. To be prepared, the preliminary work toward organizing a 
crew of instructors should be started as soon as it is decided to use 
women workers. 

The instructors to be used should be selected from the fastest workers 
in the organization. The mistake, however, should not be made of think- 
ing that any fast operator will make a good instructor. There are msany 
people who are able to do things who cannot impart their knowledge to 
others, or explain logically how they accomplish their results ; consequently 
they are useless as instructors. 

The work of the instructors selected should now be carefully studied, 
with a stop watch if necessary, and the fastest method of performing 
the operations should be determined, and the method should be taught 
to all instructors. 

When women are hired they should be immediately turned over to 
an instructor and the instructor should stay with them until they are 
performing the operation exactly as taught. The instructor may then 
leave, but should return at frequent intervals to watch the progress 
made. In no case should new employees be only partially instruct^ or 
allowed to choose their own way, for once workers have learned to do things 
the wrong way at a fair speed, it is doubly hard to make them give that 
way up and teach them the right way. 

Instructors should be selected for their ability to explain things 
clearly; for pleasing personality, tact, patience, sympathy and considera- 
tion for the rights of others ; for ability at perfonning the tasks they are 
to teach, and wherever possible unusually masculine men should not be 
put in charge of instructing women. 



56 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

One suggestion was that instructors be recruited from the women 
of a community, who have shown executive ability, and train them to in 
turn train others. Another good plan would be to let women work part 
time as a step toward training women who could be used as forewomen. 
Instructions should be given first by men, then by the women who become 
most proficient. 

In connection with the general plan of instruction, industrial training 
schools should be provided, either as a community proposition, using the 
high schools and the colleges, or by the plants themselves, in fact it would 
be well to co-operate in either case with the local educational systems. 
Apprenticeship classes can also be formed or small squads of women can 
be put in the hands of expert mechanics. 

As studies of operations were the first step recommended in deter- 
mining what work women could do, they can again be used for purposes 
of training to excellent advantage. 

One skilled womian to every ten women should be used to act as super- 
visor in helping women while undergoing training. Another suggestion 
was to take care of the matter of industrial training of women workers 
through co-operation with the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. 

E — ^Wages, Hours and Fatigue. 

The matter of wages, hours of work and consideration of fatigue, is 
most important in connection with utilization of woman labor. It can well 
be said that the success or failure of the movement depends to a great 
extent upon what we do with reference to these things. 

The answers with reference to wages narrowed down to the following : 

1— Determine standards, and pay according to performance. 

2 — Piece work, with n^inimum wage guaranteed. 

3 — ^Weekly wage for a time, then piece work. 

The principle "equal pay with men for equal work" was subscribed to 
by practically all who answered the questions. One replied "Leave it to the 
women," feeling that they were amply able to take care of themselves. 

Several felt that earnings in advance of those paid men should be 
offered to attract women workers and secure interest and co-operation, as 
for instance have a minimum wage which exceeds the amount provided 
by state laws, or pay the women 10 per cent more than men receive. 

Some were of the opinion that while women should receive the same 
as men if they produce the same, they should receive less if they do not 
produce as much, but iflore if they can exceed the production made by the 
men. 

All through the answers, it was plain to be seen that the feeling was — 
No exploitation of women — and one went so far as to urge that the Gov- 
ernment take steps to prevent any possible exploitation in the unorganized 
industries. 

Our review indicates quite clearly that organized labor has nothing 
to fear from the mianufacturing world as regards women in industry. 

In analyzing the questions as to hours, rest and fatigue, the conclu- 
sions were — 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 57 

1 — No night work 

3 — No Sunday work 

2 — No overtime 

4 — Half Saturdays off 

5 — An 8 hour day, some urging a 54 hour week. 

6 — A rest penoa in ine morning and m the after- 
noon, in addition to the lunch period, and vary- 
ing from 10 to 20 minutes. 

7 — Experiments to determine rest periods and fa- 
tigue factors in work of a very fatiguing nature. 
It was also felt that nurses or matrons should be employed to observe 
the conditions of women; look for signs of strain, nerve tension and 
fatigue, in order that women may operate at maximum efficiency in a 
physical way. Several suggested that arrangements be made to have 
female physicians assist in this important matter. 

The question of the health of the woman worker is of vital importance, 
and too much emphasis cannot be put upon it. 

No applicants should be hired who have contagious or infectious dis- 
eases. The examinaton of the eyes is frequently neglected and yet there 
is no trouble so common or so frequently neglected by the person 
hired, as d,efective eyesight. In most cases the trouble can be quickly 
and easily remedied. While knowing that this matter is usually neglected, 
we must confess to having been somewhat surprised on finding in a plant 
making optical goods, that no attention v/as paid to the eyes and that in 
the assembly of eyeglasses there were girls who were so near-sighted 
that they had to bend close to their work in order to see the fine parts 
they were assembling. No attempt had been made to fit these girls with 
glasses. 

The teeth are now recognized as one of the most common causes of 
human ailments, due to the frequency with which they generate pus and 
feed it to the body, poisoning the whole system. Not only are acute 
troubles, such as rheumatism and kindred ailments, frequently due to the 
teeth but many of the long lasting diseases that keep people below par and 
interfere with their efficiency are also due to them. 

Not only should applicants for employment be required to take a 
physical examination but employees should be periodically examined. 
Prompt medical attention in case of even minor injuries and in case of 
sickness is so valuable that considerable reductions in insurance can be 
obtained when a medical staff is maintained in a plant and some insurance 
companies will even go so far as to maintain their own doctors in a plant, 
on account of the reduction in liabilities thus obtained. Prompt attention 
to a scratch frequently prevents blood poisoning. 

If a plant is not of a size that warrants retaining a doctor and dentist 
permanently, arrangements can be made with local practitioners to handle 
all plant cases or else several concerns can associate and retain one medical 
and dental staff. However, in this case employees will require additional 
time for medical attention and will lose that much more production. 

It is not necessary for the plant doctors or dentists to treat patients, 
they can merely examine and diagnose, and the employees can then consult 
their own doctors. But care should be taken that they select reliable 



58 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

practitioners, although in case of prolonged sickness they should be visited 
from time to time by the company doctor. 

Employers and employees should get together on the important mat- 
ter of wages, hours of fatigue and work out definite rules and procedure. 
Much that was done in Great Britian will be found helpful and appendix 
D will be found of value in connection. 

F-^Working Conditions 

Another very important factor in connection with the utilization of 
woman labor is the matter of the conditions under which they work. Select 
the best of women, pay the best of wages, if working conditions are not 
right, the result is bound to be both discontent and dissatisfaction. 

The shop is a second home, in which many hours are spent each day 
and if this thought is made the basis for improvement in working con- 
ditions, there will be a much better relationship between the workers and 
the employers. 

All workrooms should be generously lighted, which helps the speed 
and accuracy of work. It would require a study of particular conditions 
to recommend the changes necessary for correct lighting, but it will be 
found that a generous use of white paint on walls and ceilings and even 
on machine bases, will accomplish wonders in improving the light, and 
next to this clean windows are a great help. In regard to artificial lighting, 
in rooms with white ceilings, the indirect or semi-indirect method of light- 
ing is superior as it is easier on the eyes and no shadows are cast. 

In regard to ventilation, you will find languor, headache, and a dis- 
inclination to work where the air is allowed to get stale. Fresh air should 
be admitted and bad air removed from rooms in such manner as not to 
create drafts. Any ventilating system that accomplishes this will be satis- 
factory. 

Temperatures of rooms should be kept constant. The best tempera- 
ture to maintain varies in accordance with the strenuousness of the labor 
performed in the room. With a little study of conditions the most satis- 
factory temperature can be detennined, and there are any number of de- 
vices made which will automatically keep the room at the temperature 
desired. 

The question of the position at work is especially important for women 
as their health and efficiency are largely dependent upon it. Wherever 
possible their work should be arranged so that they may be seated, and 
the chair or stool designed so that they will sit in an erect position. Where 
their labor requires that they stand a large part of the time, high-stools 
can be designed on which they may rest in a semi-sitting, semi-standing 
position. Special attention should be given to arranging their work about 
them so that everything needed is within easy reach. This not only adds 
to comfort but greatly speeds up the performance of the operation. 

Labor saving devices should be installed wherever possible, to elimi- 
inate lifting and handling by women. Men should of course do the 
heavier work. Safety appliances should be given the most careful atten- 
tion and rigid "safety first" rules determined and as rigidly maintained. 

Women should first start on the lighter tasks and as they become pro- 
ficient can take up heavier work, if physically able to do so — 2l matter to 
be left to the matrons, nurses or female physicians. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 59 

Under no consideration should women be placed at what might be 
called dangerous occupations, or work where they are likely to be poison- 
ed or suffer bodily injuries through explosions. They should not be placed 
in departments where gas fumes or dust would prove detrimental to their 
health, nor should they be subjected to intense heat or intense cold. 

In introducing woman labor, new buildings or new departments or 
new floors should be added, if possible. Women should be segregated if 
this can be done, either by new buildings or rearrangement of departments 
or machines. At first men would have to be used as foremen but later 
forewomen could be used. 

There should be no smoking by men when men and women are working 
together, and it would be well to allow women the right to sing as they 
work. There should also be provision for emergency illness with a nurse 
in charge if no hospital is a part of the plant. 

As work is bound to get monotonous, if the same thing is done all the 
time, arrange as far as possible to change the tasks during the day so as 
to furnish some variety, a variety that will keep a woman standing at one 
time and sitting at another. 

After lunch and during recreation periods, women should be allowed 
to completely relax and enjoy themselves, as this will be found to keep 
them in the best mental and physical condition. A music room with piano 
or victrola, where they can dance, will be found a most excellent provision. 
Physical exercise during one of the rest periods will be well worth the 
effort as all will appreciate the value of 10 to 15 minutes of setting up 
exercises daily. A library with books and magazines will be used to ad- 
vantage by those who do not care to dance. Provide rest rooms for those 
who would rather lounge than dance or read. 

Shops should be kept as clean as possible; dark nooks and comers 
should be done away with, so that everything may be kept clean and light ; 
walls and ceilings should show plenty of white and it would also be well 
to paint machines with a white oil proof enamel, all of which will do much 
to make the shop a real second home to the women, whose maternal and 
womanly instincts should be appealed to. Are they not worth it ? 

Separate entrances for men and women should be provided, or better 
yet, men and women should arrive and leave at different hours, so that 
there will not be that intermingling that is often so objectionable to 
women. 

Working clothing of women should be standardized. Overalls can be 
used or waists and aprons. Caps should be worn for protection of the 
hair. Whatever is used should b« uniform, neat and kept clean. If all 
are dressed alike, there will be less rivalry as to dress and less in the way 
of comments by "the women regarding the matter of dressing. 

A matron should be employed where women are at work, who can 
see to it that the factory laws are lived up to ; watch for any violation of 
the "safety first" rules and also look after the general health of the women. 
If possible, this matron should be a nurse. 

Provisions should be made for properly policing the streets when women 
enter and leave the works, so as to guard against women being molested 
by rowdies and loafers, so often observed on our street corners in industrial 
sections. 



60 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

It is also recommended that 45 minutes be allowed for lunch, to give 
the women ample time for eating as well as for recreation. 

There should be provided for the women workers, dressing rooms, 
lunch rooms, toilets, drinking fountains, lockers and a hospital which 
can be used for a rest room during recreation periods. 

The providing of healthful working conditions while important where 
men are concerned is doubly important where women are used. If 
women are willing to step in and fill the places the mien have left vacant 
in industry, it is only right that industry should surround them with 
conditions conducive to their health and well-being. 

As regards how this work should be done it was felt that there should 
be Government standards with supervision of such an organization as the 
Y. W. C. A., to maintain them, working through women's committees, 
the matrons in the plants to be the point of contact between the employ- 
ers, the workers and the Government. 

With reference to sex complications, Rheta Childe Dorr has this to 
say in the New York "Evening Mail" — 

"Let us be quite frank and translate ^complications,' as most people 
will employ the word in sex complications. Should we have that bogie to 
deal with if American women took over the civilian tasks now performed 
by enlisted men? 

"The highest English command raised that question when Florence 
Nightingale took her first heroic little band of women nurses out to the 
horrors of the Crimean campaigns, and that little band of heroic women 
answered the question for all their sisters who were to come after them. 

"Have any 'complications' arisen from the thousands of Red Cross 
nurses who have voluntered for the field during this war? 

"Have the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. women 'complicated' 
matters for any army? They have not, and neither would any other 
service of women at home or abroad." 

G — ^Living and Social Conditions. 

The matter of clean, wholesome living and social conditions can best 
be handled through an organization of the manufacturers of a community, 
unless a single plant is of such size that the necessary investment can be 
taken care of without embarrassment. The women in the vicinity of a 
plant wiU frequently have their own homes where they will live, but the 
women drawn in from the surrounding country will require clean, whole- 
some places where they can board at a cost consistent with the wages 
which you are able to pay them. Many of these women can be placed by 
carefully canvassing the respectable families in the neighborhood and find- 
ing those who are willing to take boarders. Good results can be accom- 
plished by constructing boarding houses and placing them under com- 
petent managers. These can be run at cost or at a slight profit, and 
excellent wholesome surroundings can be provided at extremely reasonable 
rates. Often women will desire to club together and take a house and 
the company should be able to provide houses at reasonable rentals to those 
desiring them. The advantages of the company boarding houses are that 
they assure the women of meeting other women and having social inter- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 61 

course. The lonesome woman soon leaves her job and goes home where 
she is known. 

The contentment of a woman employee might be said to depend 
one-third on wages and working conditions, one-third on living conditions, 
and one-third on good wholesome amusement. The question of amusement 
is an important one and seldom receives the consideration which it de- 
serves. If a woman thoroughly enjoys herself during her hours away 
from work it will be difficult to induce her to leave the community she is in 
even for higher wages. 

Amusements are simple to provide, as they should be made self-sup- 
porting and all that is needed is the initiative to start them. Bowling, 
sewing, dancing and card clubs should be arranged for. All that is needed 
is bowling alleys where respectable women can go, or a room large enough 
for them to dance in, or where a number can sew or play cards. Even out- 
door sports are appreciated and a few tennis courts could be used and 
paid for as used. Moving pictures are a standard amusement and if there 
is no theatre in your town where good pictures can be seen at a very 
reasonable price, one should be provided. 

If there are class distinctions do not try to combat them for you will 
fail. Let the women determine their own social levels and run their own 
clubs, admitting whom they wish. All you need to do is to supply the 
initiative to start them. Above all, do not deal with your employees on a 
charity basis. Let them pay for what they get, and make it as reason- 
able as possible. There never was a worker that did not resent anything 
resembling charity. 

^ Y. W. C. A. cantonments, community kitchens and dormitories will 
assist materially in the matter of feeding and housing women workers, 
if the manufacturers of a locality cannot get together. On a large scale, 
social settlements can be developed. 

Organizations should be formed for the mental, social, physical and 
religious betterment and welfare of women. 

Co-operative club houses to be run by women for women is another 
means for solvin^r the problem of providing proper living and social con- 
ditions. — r^ 

Don't overlook the importance of a woman's gymnasiumi, in club 
houses and arrange for women to invite their men friends to dances. Have 
fudge kitchenettes and spooning parlors — they will help materially. 

Neighborhood recreation centers under church or women's societies 
can be worked out in a camnaipn to look after the women during their 
spare time. Provide plentv for them to do but the decision must be theirs 
to a great extent as reeards what they will want to do. 

There should ho. instructions as to wholesome living conditions bv 
traveling nurses and nurses' associations of the Y. W. C. A. can do a 
great work in keeping living and social conditions on a high plane^ 

You must not overlook, however, that women workers are going to 
have a lot to say, and rightly so, about this big question of living and 
social conditons and as many have said, the same pay as men for the 
same work, will enable women to go a long way towards working out their 



62 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

own salvation. On the other hand, what is done for them, if it does not 
savor of charity, will be welcomed and appreciated. 

Employers can do much to see that right conditions are provided, but 
a far greater work can be done if there is plEin and program to it all, 
backed by Government support and co-operation. 

A government Commission should first of all work up proper con- 
ditions as to living and social welfare of women, leaving sufficient latitude 
for the consideration of purely local conditions, for they are bound to 
vary with the different sections. Certain matters pertaining to the health 
of women workers could be put up to the local health boards. Commit- 
tees of women workers could be organized to work with the other bodies 
having this question of living and social conditions in charge. 

Campaigns among industrial leaders; propaganda as to safety first, 
health, diet and the like; organizing the superintendents of plants to co- 
operate, are steps which will lead to substantial results. 

An organization like the Y. W. C. A. or the State Councils of De- 
fense could well have such a work in hand, or the women's clubs of the 
country could form committees and organize social workers corps in the 
various localities. 

Where Legislation, either State or National, is needed to provide 
proper conditions for women, the women, in conjunction with the manu- 
facturers and the Government officials, should see to it that they get it. 

A social secretary for each plant employing women would be an ex- 
cellent move, these women to be selected by the Y. W. C. A., or directing 
body, to work on all problems affecting the lives of women out of the 
shops, the same as the plant matron looks after the conditions of women 
wliile at work in the plant. 

Another suggestion was that living and social conditions affecting 
female labor should be investigated continuously by authorized parties 
appointed locally ; these investigations to be paid for by the manufacturers 
employing women, in proportion to the number they employ. 

H — State Laws. 

As regards the matters of changing or unifying the existing state 
laws, there was quite a difference of opinion. Some felt that national 
legislation was immediately necessary, while others thought that the 
laws in the various states were satisfactory as they are. 

One suggestion was that national legislation should set aside present 
laws, for the period of the war, after a standard set of rules governing 
woman and child labor had been developed, and finally enact a uniform 
Federal law governing all labor. 

Another suggested that state laws should be modified and corrected 
wherever necessary, to circumvent both unfair employers and labor unions. 

From the answers received plus an analysis of the state laws, there 
seems to be a need for some national legislation of an emergency nature, 
so that standards can be set and then maintained and while it may be 
said, and truly perhaps, that the present is no time for new legislation 
as important as this, it was felt that much could be done by bettering the 
present laws. 
Legislatures of the various states could appoint Committees and work 



4 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 63 

— — — — ^ , 

together and with the government, women's organizations, labor unions 
and bodies representing the manufacturers, out of which a uniform law 
embodying the best in the present laws could be developed. 

One suggestion was — "grant suffrage and then consult the women." 
Another was that a national organization be formed in which labor, the 
employers and the government would be represented to undertake this 
matter of changes and unification. 

In appendix A will be found a digest of state laws, a study of which 
will clearly indicate the need for national legislation. We cannot vouch 
for the extreme accuracy of this compilation, but we have taken it from 
reliable sources, compilations as made by the "American Machinist" and 
the "Merchants National Bank of Boston." 

A few words regarding the differences in the state laws will prove 
illuminating. 

Of the 49 divisions represented, only California and the District of 
Columbia limit the day's work to 8 hours and the week's work to 48. 
Although an 8-hour day has been legislated by Arizona and Colorado, the 
weekly limit is 56 hours — thus countenancing the 7-day working-week. 

The 9-hour day for women is established in 14 states in 6 of which 
the weekly limitation is 54 hours; in 3, it is 54 to 60 hours; and in 2, 
no weekly limit is fixed. 

Ten hours women's work per day is lawful in 11 states and 10 1-4 in 
New Hampshire (in a 55-hour weekly limit). According to the law as 
amended in 1911, Illinois permits a woman to work up to 70 hours in a 
week. (Later compilations were not available in preparing the digest). 

Besides Illinois, 4 states allow a 7-day working week — Colorado, Mon- 
tana, Texas and Washington. 

Iowa and West Virginia place no limit whatever upon woman's work- 
ing hours, as such. Indiana appears to have no limitation laws; and as 
to 14 states, available information is lacking as to current status of such 
laws. 

In a number of states certain occupational exceptions are made — 
especially as affecting women's night work; but speaking generally 37 
states permit women to work after dayshift, and 2 do not (Michigan and 
Pennsylvania). Nine states do not make the night- work clause effective 
unless it continues Until 9 P. M. or 10 P. M. 

In no particular is the object lack of uniformity shown better than 
concerning an attempt to regulate minimum wages for women. Nine states 
attempt definite regulations but in almost all instances, exceptions are in 
evidence. 

Somie states claim the minimum as "based on economic princinles" 
Cabbreviated BEP). but variance herp is also great. California shows 
the highest minimum $43.33 ner month ($10 a week) : but its BEP rate 
is 13c to 16c per hour — and there a "pound scale of wajres," also. Utah 
gives 90c and $1.25 per day as minimum, while Colorado makes the rate 
$1 a day, or $20 a month Twhich latter figure is equivalent to less than 
80c a dav for a 26-day month). 

Though showing pharp graduations, the female child labor-ajre-lim!t 
is more uniform than any other of the data shown. Tliere appears to be 



64 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

a genuine attempt to discourage employment of girls younger than 14 
years. The 27 states naming this limit are out done, however, by 3 states 
that place it at 15 years, and 10 states which have raised it to 16 years. 
In seeking legislation to exclude women from objectionable occupa- 
tions, it is natural that mines, and saloons should be prominently men- 
tioned ; but the only other similarity affects "cleaning moving miachinery" 
— an objective more appropriately reached, it would seem, by a general 
revision and clarifying of factory inspection and safety laws. Another 
similar illustration is seen in the attempt to bar women (in New York) 
for "all grinding and polishing operations;" whereas, it is well known 
that adequate plant equipment will include capable exhaust blowers that 
remove the dust-laden air and thus make such departments entirely 
habitable. Moreover, if it is well to make such exclusion of women as the 
score of public health, it is equally desirable to prevent the menace from 
reaching male workers; and the logical way to remove this and other 
industrial dangers is through carefully planned factory inspection and 
safety requirements. 

I — Co-Operation of Labor Unions, Women's Associatios and the Govern- 
ment. 

1— LABOR UNIONS: 

It was felt according to the answers received, that the labor unions 
would not take kindly to the introduction of women labor and that we 
could expect to have the same trouble England experienced at first in her 
attempts to utilize women labor to the fullest. The clash that is ever with 
us between capital and labor, is another reason why this matter of using 
women in industry will not be settled without considerable discussion 
and debate between workers and employers. This will be especially true 
if the labor leaders take the stand later on that there is no shortage in 
labor. 

In the first place no wholesale attempt should be made now to use 
women in industry. Man power should first be used fully and efficiently. 
Plans for women in industry should be worked out from now on how- 
ever, for in the event of a long war, which seems likely, women will be 
needed to the fullest extent. To this end steps should be taken by the 
government, by manufacturers, and by women's organizations, to make 
organized labor realize the seriousness of the international situation. 
If public opinion cannot induce their leaders to see need of women in in- 
dustry, sheer necessity will sooner or later force them to allow women to 
work side by side with the men. 

To secure the co-operation of labor, tbere ?=hould be publicity and ap- 
peal to show them the real situation as it is likely to exist in case there 
are several years more of war, in order to get labor to waive restrictions 
on output, and the use of women during the war, as England labor did. 

All steps should be fully explained at an early opportunity and nothing 
short of the utmost frankness on both sides should be considered for a 
moment. 

Efforts should also be made to analyze and anticipate the fears of 
labor, for in this as in everything else, differences are the result of mis- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 65 

understandings, and there should be no misunderstandings in this crisis. 

It should be made plain to labor that no displacement of men will be made 
when men are available ; that men returning after war will be given work 
to do — and this must be government promised which should be carried 
out. If these are agreed to, no difficulty should be encountered especially 
if in the use of women, there are the following considerations : 

Equal pay for the same work; same hours; right of women 
to organize; suffrage; and maintenance of proper working, living 
and social conditions. 

If labor objects after the above are provided, then it hasn't a leg 
to stand upon, and the government should step in, establish profits, arrange 
for compulsory arbitration, waive restriction on output and use of women 
labor, prevent cutting of rates and insure proper working conditions. 

My own conviction, and that of many I have talked with, indicates 
that organized labor will not object to women labor if it understands that 
women labor is not needed now and that the rights of women and of labor 
in general will receive consideration. 

It is thought by some that labor unions should incorporate so that 
they can be dealt with the same as business corporations are, so that 
by bringing both together, with government representatives, proper rules 
and legislation can be worked out, that both would have to live up to. 

It was also thought that women should be allowed to join unions or 
form new ones of their own, and that they should work in harmony with 
organized labor. 

It was also felt that the War Labor Administration or the National 
Chamber of Commerce, or both, should in conjunction with the American 
Federation of Labor and the Council of National Defense, find a solution 
of the labor clash during war times. 

WOMEN^S ORGANIZATIONS: 

No difficulties are expected in securing the full co-operation of women's 
organizations, in fact they are doing nobly at the present time, in doing 
all they can to win the war. 

In getting them to work to the fullest in making "women in industry" 
a real success, the appeal must be made to patriotism, sense of duty, the 
need for them in this crisis and that the underlying considerations will 
be, equality with men; earnings as a basis for social standing; proper 
working, living and social conditions; right to organize; no loss of caste 
because women work in shops ; no exploitation ; same pay for same work ; 
enforcement of better laws and the maintenance of high standards. 

To this end propaganda is needed through the lecture platform, the 
press and magazines, churches and schools and trips through plants to 
explain why women are needed, what they would be called upon to do, 
and the manner in which they would be called upon to do it. 

GOVERNMENT: 

What was said with reference to union labor and women's organiza- 
tions, applies equally well to the government. Manufacturers must got 
together and work with the government as well as with labor. Tlic poli- 
ticians must be made to see the need of women in industry, in incronsin^t 



66 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



numbers, and have the courage to come out and say so. The National 
Chamber of Commerce can be a factor along these lines. Some felt that 
full co-operation of the government was not necessary. Even if this is 
so, and I doubt it, it would be a decided help to get the goverment to 
take the initiative and working with the manufacturers and with labor, 
see to it that we efficiently use and at the same time properly safeguard, 
our women workers. In this connection all present work should be co-or- 
dinated and any laws against the proper utilization of women in industry 
should be repealed. 

The new^ War Labor Administration should make exhaustive investi- 
gations of this whole subject and with government officials in conjunction 
with representatives of manufacturers and labor, devise ways and means, 
of using our wonten in industry. 

Post-Bellum Considerations. 

The question — "What about woman labor after the war" — is a most 
important one. One of the reasons labor is opposed to women in industry, 
is its fear that women will remain to displace men after the war is over, 
which makes a consideration of this point very necessary. 

Many of those who answered the question felt that the situation would 
take care of itself when the war is over. Many soldiers will marry upon 
their return; women in the factory will meet and marry shop men and 
take up domestic work later on ; other women who desire to do their share 
during the war will go back to the pre-war occupations or activties — ^homes, 
offices, life of leisure and the like; those who become skillful and like in- 
dustrial work will want to remain in the shops. It was felt by many that 
if the war lasts long enough, we will number our dead and disabled through 
injury or disease by the hundreds of thousands, thus depleting the indus- 
trial ranks. Thousands of the disabled will have to be supported in many 
cases by the wives or sisters of the crippled or diseased, all of which will 
call for many women remaining at work. 

The opinion of many is that the reconstruction is going to call for so 
much in the way of replacements, new construction and the like, that labor 
will be in great demand for years to come and that this very demand will 
induce many women to remain in industry. 

The general feeling was, however, that the men who return should be 
given back their old jobs or that new work should be found for them; that 
home would make the real appeal to women and many would drop out for 
this reason, and that while the life of independence and high wages would 
hold a great many at work, many others would drop out because of not 
finding industrial work to their liking. 

Several other factors must be also taken into consideration. Many 
foreigners will return to their home countries after the conclusion of peace, 
which will make large gaps in the ranks of industrial workers. One man 
wrote — 

"We employ quite a large percentage of foreign labor and 
from my observation I am inclined to believe that a large majority 
of these foreigners will return to their native country as soon as 
the war is over. Germany and Austria-Hungary are, we under- 
stand, offering great inducements for the return of their subjects 
after the war and these subjects can return in a very much higher 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 67 

plane than they left. They have been fatted by war wages and in 
a great many instances will be able to practically retire, accord- 
ingly, the women that are now induced into industry enterprises 
will be needed for a good many years after the war is over." 

Steamship Companies report that from 500,000 to 1,000,000 aliens are 
planning to go back to their respective countries when the war is over. 
About this point, Frederic C. Howe, Commissioner of the Port of New 
York, says — 

"Instead of surplus of labor there may be quite a universal 
shortage and those countries that make conditions most attractive 
are going to secure immigrants and keep their own population." 

In other words, we may change from an immigration to an emigration 
nation. 

If the plan of using women in industry works properly, and society 
as a whole is benefited, employment of women will undoubtedly continue. 
There is no question about it, the use of women in industry is going to 
teach valuable lessons to both labor and capital ; through suffrage which is 
coming, women will have a greater say about things than ever before, and 
as the war is developed a place for women in the conduct of affairs, she 
will have a voice, in whether or not she will be used by and in industry, 
and if used how it will be done. It will be found, at any rate, that the best 
of men and the best of women will naturally improve things, both in and 
out of industry. 

With reference to women returning to their old lines of activity, 
Rheta Childe Dorr, in the "New York Evening Mail," has this to say about 
the English women — 

"They were to be put out of the trade as soon as the emer- 
gency was past, but now it is beginning to be feared that they 
can't be put out. Think of the black ingratitude of any set of 
men, trade unionists, soldiers or statesmen, who would try to put 
them out. 

"Some of the men in the shops, foremen and skilled workmen 
who have taught the women, helped them to develop skill, openly 
declare in favor of keeping them on. Many employers say that 
they will keep them. 

"The opinion has been expressed that the women will volun- 
tarily leave the mechanical trades. Many married women prob- 
ably will. Some, perhaps, of the leisure class women who have 
gone to work from patriotic motives, will go home, do church 
work, pour tea and read novels. More of them will have learned 
to love work for its own sake and they will stick. 

"That any number of women now working for good wages 
in skilled trades will meekly hand the jobs over to men and go 
back to $3 a week in a millinery, dro=;smaking and domestic serv- 
ice, is to my mind unthinkable. Imagine a woman who has risked 
her life loading: shells, who has known the job of creating great 
steel engines, of making winged machines that helped to win the 
greatest of wars, going back to washing dishes or toiling in a hot 
loft on a power sowing machine." 
It must be remembered also, that the war is teaching men the wonders 



68 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

of outdoor life and many will go west and on farms, and this will also have 
its influence in creating a demand for labor after the war, and while at 
flrst there is bound to be a violent readjustment, it will be of short duration 
as there will be so much work to be done in the way of reconstruction that 
everyone who will want to work, will find work to do. 
One man said — 

"After war, smart women will work, lazy loaf, same as now. 
Might put petticoats on 3rd rate men and trousers on the smart 
women.'' 

It looks very much as if the proposition will adjust itself, as men and 
women will fit themselves for tasks they can do best. We cannot get away 
from this basic argument — if there is a dearth of men, ivonien ivill be 
needed and will work, whereas if there is an oversupply of men, women 
will have to give ivay. The law of supply and demand may be expected to 
work here as in other things. 

As a constructive measure a national commission should be appointed 
by the government or the War Labor Administration to consider this very 
point, conduct investigations and work up a logical plan demobilization of 
women in industry ; of maintaining the army as it returns and releasing the 
men to industry gradually, so as not to dump millions of them on the labor 
market, before plans for the handling of both male and female labor, have 
been worked out. 

Conferences with these ends in view, between labor unions, women's 
organizations, employers' associations and the government should also be 
arranged for, as well as a program of co-ordinated action between the em^ 
ployment bureaus of the country. 

There may also be quite a little legislation necessary, as for instance 
a law to prohibit married women from working in industry, who live with 
their husbands and whose wages are sufficient to support both. 

In connection with these twelve questions, it may be interesting to 
note the replies of Hilda Muhlhauser Richards, Chief, Women's Division, 
Department of Labor — 

1. How are we going to find the army of women needed ? — Answer : 
Through registration at city, state and Federal employment offices and all 
other agencies. 

2. What basis shall we use for selecting women ? — Ans. : Experience 
and training. 

3. What efforts shall we make to provide proper living conditions?^ 
Ans. : Must be provided through government housing. 

4. What changes will we have to make to provide working condi- 
tions? — Ans. : Establish through legislation. 

5. What social conditions will we have to provide? — Ans. : Provision 
for recreation and volunteer units to look after women like the English 
System. 

6. What hours should women work and how about rest periods, 
fatigue and the like?^ — Ans.: Eight hours. 

7. How will we arrange to subdivide and arrange the operations so 
that women can efficiently perform them? — ? 

8. How will we train women and who will do it? Ans.: Through 
vocational training schools and classes in factories under government. 



LAB OR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 69 

9. What steps will be necessary to induce the full co-operation of — 
(a) Labor Unions? (b) Organizations of women? (c) Our Government? 
— Ans>: Committees. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw Committee. Department 
of Labor, Women's Division. 

10. What step necessary to change and unify State Laws? — Ans. : 
None. 

11. How shall we adjust and arrange the wages of women? — Ans.: 
By careful legislation like the 8-hour law for engineers, conductors and 
trainmen. 

12. What will we do with reference to woman labor after the war? 
— Ans.: Prepare now. Commission ought to study readjustment. 

In Appendix C will be found a list of representative opinions of many 
of those answering the questionnaire. 

Standards. 

The Ordnance and Quartermaster's Departments' standards and the 
standards of the Women's Trade Union League regarding this question of 
women in industry along with some standard practice worked out by the 
Executives Club, of Detroit, are herewith submitted, as they will be found 
of value in connection with a proper consideration of this subject. 

Standards Ordnance Department and Quartermaster's De- 
partment and Division Women in Industiy, Women's Committee 
of Council of National Defense. 

Standards for Employment of Women. 

1. Hours of labor. — Existing legal standards should be rig- 
idly maintained, and, even where the law permits a 9 or 10 hour 
day, efforts should be made to restrict the work of women to 8 
hours. 

2. Prohibition of night work. — The employment of women 
on night shifts should be avoided as a necessary protection, moral- 
ly and physically. 

3. Rest periods. — No women should be employed for a 
longer period than four and a half hours without a break for a 
meal, and a recess of 10 minutes should be allowed in the middle 
of each working period. 

4. Time for meals. — At least 30 minutes should be allowed 
for a meal, and this time should be lengthened to 45 minutes or an 
hour if the working day exceeds 8 hours. 

5. Place for meals. — Meals should not be eaten in the work- 
rooms. 

6. Saturday half holiday. — The Saturday half holiday should 
be considered an absolute essential for women under all condi- 
tions. 

7. Seats. — For women who sit at their work, seats with 
backs should be provided, unless the occupation renders this im- 
possible. For women who stand at work, seats should be avail- 
able and their use pemiitted at regular intervals. 

8. Lifting weights. — No woman should be retiuired to lift 
repeatedly more th^n 25 pounds in any single load. 

9. Replacement of men by women. — When it is necessary 



70 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

to employ women on work hitherto done by men, care should be 
taken to make sure that the task is adapted to the strength of 
women. The standards of wages hitherto prevailing for men in 
the process should not be lowered where women render equivalent 
service. The hours of women engaged in such processes should, 
of course, not be longer than those formerly worked by men. 

10. Tenement-house work. — No work shall be given out to 
be done in rooms used for living purposes or in rooms directly 
connected with living rooms. 

Standards of Women's Trade Union League. 

Women's Trade Union League has formulated standards which are 
subscribed to by the Women in Industry Committees of the State Councils 
of Defense. They are — 

Adult labor. 

Equal pay for women when they do an equal amount of work 
with men. 

An eight hour day. 

One day of rest in seven. 

Elimination of night work for women. 

Exemption from call of women who have small children and 
for two months before and after childbirth. 

That technical and trade training be opened to women in all 
schools and colleges on equal terms with men. 

Standard Practice Executiv4*s' Club, Detroit. 

Report of Committee on Standards of Working Conditions. 

In order to protect the women who may enter industry at our solici- 
tation and to provide for them fair working conditions, the Committee on 
Standards of Working Conditions submits the following recommendation: 

1. That the Recruiting Committee investigate the applications 
from married women with children to ascertain if the children 
are properly cared for. Results of investigations to be filed with 
the Central Bureau. 

2. That women be given equal pay for equal work. While learn- 
ing they shall be paid the flat day rate paid men for the same work 
or operation. This recommendation has the endorsement of the 
Detroit Division of the Women's Committee of the Council of Na- 
tional Defense, as they passed a resolution to this effect on May 
14, 1917. The committee understands that the Buick Motor Car 
Company, of Flint, Mich., is at present paying women on this 
basis. 

3. Because of the experience of England, where it was found that 
shorter hours resulted in more and better work, we suggest that 
the working day for women be limited to eight hours and that 
the maximum weekly hours be limited to forty-eight. 

4. That the following working conditions are essential : 

a. Separate entrances to be provided for women if practicable; 
if not, that women be allowed to report for work fifteen minutes 
later than men and leave fifteen minutes earlier. 



LABOR PROB LEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 71 

b. That separate workshops be provided if possible; if not, that 
there be both a man and a woman supervisor stationed in the 
mixed departments. 

c. That rest rooms and toilets adjoining workshops be provided 
with a matron in charge. 

d. That a sufficient number of drinking fountains be installed in . 
each department. 

e. That the period for lunch be at least forty-five minutes. 

f . That if possible a restaurant be operated on the premises ; if 
not, at least a counter maintained where a box lunch with hot 
cottee and tea and milk can be purchased at cost. 

g. That provision be made for rest periods during working hours, 
their frequency and duration depending on the nature of the 
work. 

h. That seats be provided wherever possible to avoid injury 
to women by standing all day at their work, 
i. That sickness insurance be provided to care for workers ab- 
sent because of sickness. 

j. That workers on mionotonous and tedious operations, to avoid 
undue fatigue, be transferred from time to time as seems advis- 
able. 

k. That there shall be provision for first-aid attention to all 
workers. 

1. That there be first-class supervision of working conditions 
with particular reference to safety, sanitation, ventilation and 
lighting. 

m. That some person be delegated to act as welfai'e supervisor 
for the plant, to whom women shall have access and whose duty 
it shall be to have general oversight over welfare conditions. This 
position might be given to some woman already in the employ of 
the company, in addition to her other duties, but if possible a 
trained person should be secured for this work. 
In setting up these standards the comanittee feels that its work would 
be useless and ineffective unless a permanent committee was appointed 
by the executives to investigate working conditions in each plant em- 
ploying women to be recruited by the special committee organized for 
this purpose. Such a committee should not only make an investigation 
before placing the women, but should further make periodic visits to 
ascertain if the standards are being maintained according to agreement. 
Since it is almost impossible to set standards for first-aid and safety 
provisions, without an intimate knowledge of the size and kind of plant 
and hazard of the work, we deem it advisable that this permanent in- 
spection committee treat each plant individually adjusting requirements 
in each case according to the conditions found on visitation. 

We further suggest that this committee be made up of three safety 
engineers, three welfare managers, three employment managers and three 
time-study men, to be split up into three units of four members each, as 
the work to be undertaken will be heavy and more than one small com- 
mittee can handle. 



72 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

Report of Committee on Recruiting and Placing of Applicants. 

Realizing its close relation to the Committee on Standards of Work- 
ing Conditions, and to the Committee on Education, the Committee on 
Recruiting and placing of Applicants desires to bring to your attention that 
the acceptance of the recommendations of the Committee on Standards 
of Working Conditions is vital to the success of this Committee ; also that 
it feels the matter of education to be so important to the success of any 
scheme for recruiting and placing that it wishes to include the report of 
the Committee on Education as a part of its own report. 

It further wishes to point out that, if this work is to be co-ordinated 
with the plans of the Women's Compiittee of the Council of National De- 
fense, any statements or recommendations here made must be contingent 
on instructions to be issued from Washington. 

The Committee proposes, as a means of reaching women desiring to 
enter industry, to distribute application blanks through the available 
avenues of the various women's organizations co-operating with the 
women's committee of the Council of National Defense. If necessary re- 
cruiting stations can be established at the headquarters of these organi- 
zations. 

As the Council of National Defense will issue uniform application 
blanks for general service, it is obvious that this Committee should wait 
upon the arrival of the government forms before preparing its special ap- 
phcation blanks, adapted to the local conditions and plans, in order that the 
two may conform and our blanks, therefore, meet with ready govern- 
mental approval. 

It is further proposed that a Central Placing Bureau be established 
where applicants shall present their applications in person, having pre- 
viously filled out the blanks. Opportunity would then be given them to 
meet any further and more detailed requirements, such as later might be 
found necessary. 

When an application is turned in, it should be filed and card given 
in its place to each apphcant, directing the applicant either to a particular 
employer, if already qualified for a position, or to the Educational Com- 
mittee for instruction. 

It is recommended that the Central Placing Bureau be in charge of 
a competent paid attendant, operating under the direction of this Com- 
mittee. 

It also seems necessary that this Committee be authorized to in- 
clude in its work the investigation of the applications of married women, 
to insure that the statements made on the blanks agree with the actual 
conditions in the homes. 

It is further believed that a physical examination should be made of 
each applicant. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 73 

THE CHAIRMAN: Those of us who were present at the 1917 con- 
ference will remember at least one woman who has made her pres- 
ence felt in industry. They will remember Miss Florence King, who 
through the various discussions reminded us of the part that women 
should play in industry, and it probably had no little influence on this par- 
ticular conference. Miss King also is an example of what woman can do, 
inasmuch as she is one of the few practising woman attorneys in the coun- 
try. It is my pleasure, therefore, to introduce Miss King, who is presi- 
dent of the Woman^s Association of Commerce of the United States, who 
will talk to us on the subject of "Some Things Women Should Do to Help 
Win the War." (Applause.) 

MISS FLORENCE KING : Mr. Chairman and ladies and gentlemen : 
It is indeed a great pleasure to speak to you this evening, and especially 
after having heard Mr. Knoeppel's splendid analysis resulting from the 
questionnaire which was sent to so many manufacturing concerns, busi- 
ness houses and individuals who have taken an interest in this subject of 
women in industry. 

The women who have been in industry for a great many years have 
struggled very, very hard for the thing that Mr. Knoeppel through his 
analysis has now brought to your attention. Two things particularly that 
he referred to impressed themselves upon my mind, because it has taken 
us so long, it has taken us women so long to make that thought register at 
a place where it would be worth while or could bring forth any result. 
First, equal pay for equal work. Second, that women in industry shall not 
be exploited. Those are two things that have engaged the attention of 
women for many, many years. But, like other things, women having no 
power to execute their desires, have only had the ability to plead in a weak 
way and to petition and beg and hope and pray that some time, somehow, 
somewhere something would be said or done that would bring this to the 
attention of those who could handle it in a practical way. That it should 
take a great world war to bring about these changes, these readjustments 
that should have been brought about as a matter of justice seems most 
strange. But if it had to come that way, we are glad that it is here now. 

This organization, I believe, is the first man's organization that has 
given serious consideration to the question of women in industry and to 
the question of readjustment now that the war makes it necessary. You 
are handling it in a most scientific, in a most practical manner. Surely 
some great good must come out of this. 

When I was asked to speak about the subject of some of the things 
that women should do to win the war, I felt as though there should be a 
double-header to that subject, and the second part would be some things 
that women would like to do to win the war. I fear that if I should speak 
exactly what is in my mind that I too would be put in the class that it 
seems Mr. Knoeppel has been sometimes when he has been considered a 
pessimist. As a matter of fact, he is a most extraordinary, optimist, be- 
cause he has the courage to point out the things that need to be changed, 
things that have been in the past mistakes. So if I should appear in what 
I have to say this evening to border very closely upon pessimism it is not 
that I am of a pessimistfc turn of mind, but on the contrary that I am very 



74 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

optimistic; but I do like to point out some of the things when I have an 
opportunity to speak to men particularly, and give them a woman^s view- 
point. 

My contention has always been that we will work together better when 
we can get the best ideas from both men and women. As you know, any 
system that is one-sided soon gets over-balanced, and that is what has 
been the trouble here for so long, because ever since the Civil War women 
have been in industry, have been in the business world, but have been 
there rather under protest, not wanted exactly, but as nobody could keep 
us out we have kept on going down the years until the year before the war 
broke out ten million of us were in the industries in this country ; surely 
enough to speak now with a voice loud enough to be heard. I hope that 
many of these conditions will be changed, and once they are changed they 
will remained changed forever. 

The first thing that women should do to help win this war should be 
to give their loyalty. Every woman, whether she is native or foreign- 
bom, should be loyal to this government absolutely. Whether we have 
grievances or whether we have not should make no difference. She should 
not only be loyal herself, but insofar as she has ability to do so should see 
that those about her are loyal. To report any evidence of disloyalty is a 
splendid thing to do at this time. 

We have so many different types of patriotism in this country that it 
is rather startling. One type that was brought to my attention in court 
the other day was a very well-to-do family in Chicago who had displayed 
in their window a service flag containing a single star. Many people are 
very proud of those flags and justly so. Upon investigation it was found in 
this instance that that single star represented a chauffeur formerly em- 
ployed by the family and that the two sons of the family, both of military 
age, were enjoying the winter on the golf links of Florida. 

There are some types of patriotism that make us almost ashamed, and 
we have to speak of them with an apology. There is much to be done then 
on the question of loyalty, and that is to apply, of course, to men as well 
as to women, so that wherever there appears to be an evidence of disloy- 
alty some mention should be made of it so that that person, man or 
woman, would be found out and placed in his right list. 

This, as I said before, is not a time to point out mistakes, but at the 
same time where mistakes can be pointed out with the idea of more con- 
structive readjustment it seems to me that surely criticism is always in 
order, and now that women are called upon and the nation is asking us to 
take such great responsibilities it would seem but right and fair that 
women should have greater representation in our national council. How 
can we be heard, how can we be understood until then? 

Is it possible that the people of America who are supposed to be the 
most progressive people in the world do not understand that at this time 
the brightest minds among our women in this country are devoting their 
best effort, their best attention towards securing that federal suffrage 
amendment, that amendment that has been pending in congress nearly 
fifty years; is it not long enough that America should heed its women's 
plea for democracy and extend its suffrage to us now so that our efforts 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 75 

should be released toward helping more in these other great problems that 
are before the country ? 

When you think of the great army of women who are giving all their 
spare time on that work now, who would be so glad and so willing to do a 
greater measure of war work, but realizing as men do that unless that 
amendment passes during the war none of us will ever live long enough to 
see it become effective ; the women of this country have worked too long 
and too hard in doing the pioneer work that has been done here to be cast 
aside now, even though our country is facing the greatest crisis in our 
national history. Is it not time that America should pause long enough to 
extend democracy to its women at home, place them in a position where 
they can render better service than they are rendering now, and in that 
way place them in a position where they can do very many more things 
toward helping to win this war than they can do now ? 

One of the httle mistakes that has been made in our present congress 
that I dare say would not have been made if there had been women in con- 
gress who could have taken a hand in this matter has reference to the 
enemy registration law, compelling all male alien enemies to register, to 
give certain information to this government, that the government may 
know how to proceed with them. That law did not include women. Does 
that mean that women do not know enough to do any damage to this coun- 
try at a time like this ? And have you observed since that registration law 
took effect how many women alien enemies have been unearthed and dis- 
covered as spies in this country, who had worked so carefully before that 
that no one seemed to pay any attention to the fact that women could be 
alien enemies? 

That has precipitated a condition that practically nullifies the effect 
of the alien registration law, because practically every man who registered 
has a wife, mother or sister or some woman who acts for him and is his 
agent in doing what he must be more cautious about doing lest he be 
caught on his own registration. 

That is one of the things that I am sure women would have observed 
before the law went into effect. But even when it was called to the atten- 
tion of congress by thousands of women in this country, no attention was 
paid to it until the matter became so serious that it was necessary to enact 
a new law, which is in the process of going through at this time. 

Those are some of the things that, I believe, if women had a voice in 
these mattei's, greater efficiency would be found in dealing with than we 
have right now. 

I do not know why it is, but there are certain instances when men 
seem to be afraid to deal with a woman. That is apparently one of the in- 
stances, and it is a serious question, too, as thousands of you will know 
who have watched the developments, particularly in New York, Washing- 
ton and Baltimore. 

Other things that women should do to help win this war are so many 
that I can only touch upon a few of them this evening. One thing is this, 
that all women should become producers, and when they are, what a largo 
army will be added to the workers we already have! 

We have a great class of wonirn in this country who are by no moans 



76 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

producers of anything useful. We have in the woman power of this coun- 
try something that is not being utiHzed at all, largely because they are not 
properly organized, and no one seems to know how to organize them. The 
government has taken hold of that, the State Council of Defense, and so 
forth, and you will find them all traveling around in a circle not knowing 
what to do or how to go about it. 

One thing that I have observed in our own local administration here is 
the fact that the women who are undertaking to do these things are all 
inexperienced women. They are wives of wealthy men who find an oppor- 
tunity to come before the public as they never have had it before, and it 
is fascinating to them. That as you know, though, does not mean effi- 
ciency. Efficiency is only acquired by training and experience, and those 
women don't have it. But no effort is being made to seek out the women 
of experience and capability, and those women are all too busy to try and 
hunt themselves the places that the society women are seeking. 

We know that those of us here at home have a duty to perform in this 
war that is just as necessary, just as essential as the duties that are being 
perfoiTQed by the soldiers over seas, but when we are three thousand miles 
behind the firing line we do not begin to get the horrors of war as those 
who are in Europe do, and are experiencing every day. The war has not 
touched us up to this time as it will, say, in one year or more when we be- 
gin to have the returns from this tremendous battle that is raging right 
now\ Then will come to us the horrors of war as we have never experi- 
enced them before. We will begin to understand what it means to send 
these soldiers to Europe, what it will mean to supply munitions and food 
and clothing for them. Those are the duties that are for us to perfoim 
here at home, and it means much to be able to do that and to do it in a 
way that will meet the requirements. 

Mr. Knoeppel has told us what proportion of our munitions and our 
food and our supplies that are being sent over there go to the bottom of 
the sea. What does that mean then for us who are here at home and for 
the number of soldies that we ought to be sending over there ? 

We have at this time our government calling upon women to perform 
sei'\aces they have never rendered before, and women have always re- 
sponded when demands have been made upon them, and I believe they will 
do it again. We have many occupations that are new for women, but at 
this time the government desires them to undeii;ake new training and per- 
form services which it is believed theoretically they can perform, and I 
believe they \vi\\ be found able to do it 

Today I have from the War Depai'tment a request for women who 
will receive training as inspectors of war material. That will require an 
educated, well-balanced woman. But I believe there are enough of them 
in this country who are ready to respond for just such duties as that. 
They are making a trial of this to see if women can do it, and if they can, 
each place they can fill with a woman releases a man for sei-vice. This 
will be an Interesting line of work for women to undertake, and I believe 
that we will find the women in this country who are able and ready and 
willing to respond to that call. 

A while ago it was a great problem right here in Chicago, what shall 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDEFw WAR CONDITIONS 77 

we do with the woman over forty, to find her employment? They do not 
want her in the office because so many young girls can fill those positions 
and for some reason or other they are more desirable. So that the woman 
over forty seems to be an outcast, and yet there are so many positions she 
can fill and so many services that she can render that would be much more 
efficiently done with her years of experience, regardless of what her expe- 
rience has been, I think the woman over forty is tit to fill these positions 
that the government is so sadly in need of at this time. 

One of the additional things that women are being called upon to do 
now, as they were a while ago, is to help place this next Liberty Loan, and 
women will help to do it, too. When the last Liberty Loan was brought 
here to Chicago and our proportion among the women was supposed to be 
$750,000, they thought if the women took half of that they would show a 
high degree of patriotism. And you know the women went to work on 
that Liberty Loan. It may not be new to you, but I shall repeat it any 
way. The women of Chicago took $7,000,000 worth of those Liberty 
Bonds, exceeding by a long way the most, the very most, that was ex- 
pected of them. And so they will in all these other demands that are made 
upon them, if they are but given the opportunity. So that as I have said 
again and again in my talks in the past, if we can only mould public opinion 
to the point when they will see and understand that what the women want 
more than anything else at this time is to be given a man's chance to pro- 
duce results, then watch whether or not they will do it in the same ratio, 
in the same proportion, that they took the amount of Liberty Bonds that 
they were supposed to take. And they will do it. 

One of the things that we have found — and when I say we, I mean 
the women who are in the world making a living for themselves and for 
others ; who know something about the conditions as they exist here — one 
of the things that we have found has been, just as Mr. Knoeppel's analysis 
shows it still to be, that so much attention is being paid to the details 
surrounding women in the business or industrial world that they forget 
the big idea, the thing that stands out paramount before the woman her- 
self. It is all right to have good surroundings, a splendid environment, 
good machinery to work with, good social conditions and all of that, but 
there is something more. The great incentive seems still to have been 
forgotten. When we talk about equal pay for equal work, of course that 
is a great step in advance, and we women appreciate it, let me tell you. 
But after all of those conditions are taken care of and the general analysis 
made by Mr. Knoeppel is the same as is being followed today; we find 
nurses and welfare workers in every large organization where women are 
employed, looking after their personal welfare. Our contention is that 
there is as much need for the attention being paid to the personal welfare 
of the men employees as for the women. Why direct all of these young 
women as to the different things they are going to meet, the moral condi- 
tions that surround them, and so forth ; why talk with them about it and 
keep them, and send them out where they meet the men who have had no 
training along that line at all, who have no standards that they are being 
taught to follow? Does it not nullify all that is being done for the women 
to have that condition pievail? Why not have the same kind of attention 



78 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

paid to both the men and the women ? I beheve better results would fol- 
low. It is bound to. When you remove the cause the effect wiU usually 
take care of itself. But when you remove only half the cause, that half is 
going to be contaminated by the other half just as sure as anything in the 
world. 

We find in all the large manufacturing establishments, and I believe it 
is a rule almost without exception, that among the officers, among the 
managers, the heads of departments, the superintendents and all of your 
other executives, you point with pride to John Smith and George Brown 
and others who started out here in our shop as a boy. He learned the 
business and he has been promoted from time to time until he has reached 
the presidency or he is the manager, he is the treasurer or the secretary of 
our company. It is a matter of pride, real pride. How many times can 
you find that there is a woman who started there in the factory in the , 
same way who reaches to such a position ? She finds that she gets up to a 
line beyond which women are not allowed to go; merit does not count. 
Now, for efficiency there is nothing that is the stimulus to greater achieve- 
ment than promotion and recognition of service well rendered will be. 

Equal pay for equal work is a good thing, of course, but we do not 
want to stay doing the same work right along, even though we get the 
same pay. What women would like and what I believe so many of you 
would find would be the greatest incentive to women to do better work and 
to advance more rapidly would be to put them in line for promotion for 
merit, for services rendered. You will find then an incentive. That in- 
centive has never been extended to women before, as most of you well 
know. The civil service laws covering the best positions either to men or 
to women close the best positions to women, even after taking the exam- 
ination. The very fact that she is a woman disqualifies her. That is an- 
other thing that this war is changing. Women are eligible to take the 
examinations for many positions they were not before, and they are filling 
them with credit to themselves and to their employers. 

I speak of these things as I say, not by way of criticism. No one is 
to blame for it, but it is a condition that has existed in the past that should 
now be changed, because we are living in war times, and in war times we 
learn to do in weeks of time what we take years to leam in times of peace. 
And when we are looking for greater efficiency now and more opportunities, 
more workers, let us analyze and see what it is that would be the greatest 
inducement to our women. I am sure we v/ill develop many things that 
will be new. In fact, I believe before this war is over that one of the 
greatest assets in America will be discovered, and that will be the unde- 
veloped ability of its women. Why should that not follow as a natural 
course? 

Take the boys and girls when they start to school and go through the 
grades, go through the high school, and what do their records show? You 
will agi^ee with me that the girls are the ones who stand at the head of 
their classes. And why? There is not any particular reason why that 
should be so because there they go in on an equal basis. Their work is 
exactly the same; their conditions are exactly the same. But the results 
are very different. When they get to that point that is about as far as 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 79 

the girl is permitted to go, because when she gets into the business world 
as I say, the opportunities for promotion on merit have not been extended 
to her, and so she has never had that equal opportunity that she is entitled 
to and that I believe is going to come to her now through the war condi- 
tions which we are facing. 

We have before us the question of food conservation and food pro- 
duction this year as one of the vital things in winning this war. We are 
told constantly that food will win the war. We are urged to greater pro- 
duction, greater conservation along all lines, and certainly the women are 
co-operating in that. With the garden movement last year there was 
added to our agricultural interests $350,000,000 worth of products raised 
largely by the women and children in their little garden-plots. In another 
year, with the experience of last year, surely we should more than double 
that amount. But on the question of increased production, the farmer is 
confronted with a situation that will be rather startling around harvest 
time. He will not have the labor with which to harvest his crop. That 
is a great question how that is going to be done. We know that the 
women of the foreign countries engaged in this war are carrying on the 
agricultural interests to a very great extent, and they are doing it suc- 
cessfully, just as they are doing many of the other kinds of work under- 
taken by them, and as Mr. Knoeppel has said, in Europe they have been 
put to the most extreme test, and they have met the requirements. They 
will do it in this country, but the readjustment seems so difficult to make. 

A farmer cannot think even for a moment of employing women on his 
farm. His farm is largely operated by tractors, reapers, mowers, binders 
and all of this machinery that now minimizes the labor on the farm, and 
they are operated so much like the automobile, and here we see women on 
the street, on the crowded street in this loop district, driving their auto- 
mobiles every day with a great deal of courage and fortitude, and it does 
not seem to take any effort. That amount of energy could just as well be 
directed toward greater agricultural industry and used in driving some 
farm machinery and helping to harvest these crops. 

But it requires the co-operation of men as well as women. If we could 
come together and analyze these situations there is no question but that 
in time we should be able to work together and solve many of these prob- 
lems that seems to us so immense at this time. 

While women are being urged to consei-ve food, we have a few ideas 
about the production of food that we are anxious to have the co-operation 
of you men in, if you can see fit to change some of your ideas as to patri- 
otism and as to what ought to be done now. There is no need to develop 
new acreage in the West far from transportation, far from the labor mar- 
ket, where the crops harvested last year, it was impossible to ship to the 
market centers. There is greater need then to intensify our farming in 
the central district and in the eastern district where we are near to trans- 
portation and where we are nearer to the labor market, whatever it may 
be. 

We have in this country manufacturing plants, as they have in Europe, 
plants that were formerly devoted to the manufacturing of what we call 
luxuries, that are now-being utilized for manufacturing necessaries. The 



80 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



same thing should be done in agriculture. We have a food administration 
with power to control the production and the distribution of food. That 
food administration will have power, it seems to me, to go a little bit fur- 
ther. It has the power to prevent the use of wheat in the distillation of 
spirituous liquors. The question of raising wheat is such a serious one in 
America at this time, and yet we have 1,369,900 acres of the best soil in 
the United States devoted to the cultivation of what it seems to a gi'eat 
many of us is a luxury; it is devoted to the cultivation of tobacco. 

There are some who will say that the soil cannot be used to raise 
wheat on. Agiicultural experts and scientific farmers tell us that it can. 
It can be used to raise sugar cane. There are two products greatly needed 
in this country at this time, and on 1,369,900 acres of land we could meas- 
ure our increased production in millions of bushels of wheat or in thou- 
and hundreds of thousands of pounds of sugar cane. That ought to mean 
something to this country, and if it does, why should we not urge its use 
at this time? 

I sincerely hope that you gentlemen will give some thought to that. I 

know we women have been laughed at for even advocating the idea, but 

this is w^ar time. It is a serious proposition, and I cannot see any joke in 

having that great acreage devoted to the cultivation of what we must class 
as a luxury. At least it does not seem to me that it is a necessity. If it 
is, then we women have been missing a lot for a great many years. 
(Laughter.) 

There are so many different kinds of war work that women can do, so 
many things that they should do and that they want to do to help win this 
war, that I could stay here and talk all evening, and it is getting so late I 
must stop. I have just one more thing that I want to speak about, and 
perhaps it is not so important that it deserves any mention at all. I do 
wdsh that you men folks would urge the strong, able-bodied women of 
your famlies to stop knitting. Now, we have machinery to do that, and 
why not utilize the time in some useful way ? If you men had to knit your 
brains would become petrified. That is a fact, and so it will be with 
women. They should utilize their time about something very much more 
needed. The soldier would prefer the machine knit goods. Why do we 
tie up the time of these women in knitting when they ought to be doing 
something more necessary? Why, it would be as sensible to ask you 
business men to go back to your offices tomorrow morning and write your 
letters by hand and discard the typewriter. There is a little sentiment 
that seems to cling around that home-knit stuff, but you might say the 
same sentiment would be extended to the hand-written letter, because it 
was written by hand it would get more attention, although you know 
very well there are some of you who write so poorly that your corre- 
spondents could not read it and they would thank you to use the machine. 
(Laughter.) 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 81 

I think you would render a real service if you would do that. When 
the war started the women were urged to do something and that seemed 
to be the one thing they could fasten upon and do it with a zeal and 
energy that expressed their patriotism. That was all right at that time 
because they were not classified in a way where they could render better 
service. But today when the nation is calling upon them for services 
in different capacities, and as I said here a while ago, the government 
is willing to take these women and train them to do certain kinds of 
work that they want done, that is the thing that I would like to see the 
women of America take hold of and help win this war. Not run around 
in a circle and carry these great knitting bags around and make them- 
selves look old-fashioned and I don't know what all. It does not accom- 
plish anything. It does not get them anything and it is not producing 
a thing that anybody wants. It is like teaching a dog to play a trick 
that nobody wants to see him play. I think you can rendered a splendid 
service if you will do that, and help your women folks to get started 
into another line. 

Women are not used to taking the initiative themselves. You men 
are. If you will say to them that it is time for them to do something 
more constructive they will listen to you. That will mean much to women 
coming from you men. And so the one thought I would like to leave 
with you is greater co-operation with the women. Give the woman a 
man's chance. That is what thousands of them are wanting, and once 
they have had that chance they will respond as women always have. 
But never having been trained to take the lead, never having been per- 
mitted to take the lead in these things, is largely the reason for their 
backwardness at this time. It certainly is not a lack of willingness on 
their part, not at all, because they are eager to do the things that are 
open for them to do, and with your help and co-operation I know, as I 
said, we will discover America's greatest asset, the undeveloped ability 
of the women of this country. 

I thank you. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN: I realize the hour is getting late, but I want 
to urge all those who can possibly stay to remain for the next paper. 
Your time will certainly not be wasted. In our first paper we heard a 
speaker from the far East, from New York. Miss King represents the 
central district, Chicago. Our program seems to be well balanced inas- 
much as we have for our third speaker a representative of the far West, 
Mr. Barton T. Bean, of San Francisco, Cal. Mr. Bean is president of 
Klink, Bean & Company, of San Francisco, public accountants and indus- 
trial engineers of that city. He has been very active on the Food Indus- 
trial Board of the United States, Food Administration of California, being 
chairman of that body, volunteering under Ralph C. Merrill, Federal 
Food Commissioner of California. Mr. Bean will speak to us on "Labor 
and Price Stab/llization by Voluntary Agreement After the War." I take 
great pleasure in introducing Mr. Bean. (Applause.) 



82 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

LABOR AND PRICE STABILIZATION BY VOLUNTARY AGREE- 
MENT AFTER THE WAR. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: The work of the United 
States Food Administration among industries dealing in food staples has 
developed some interesting experiences which may, along the lines of 
stabilizing prices, effect in the future many startling changes in prac- 
tices prevailing in pre-war business. 

Before the war the inexorable laws of supply and demand made all 
dealings in food staples and necessaries a speculative venture; and while 
the dealer in such commodities was often able, by reason of his specu- 
lative profits, to sell such staples as flour, sugar, etc., at a small advance 
over the ruling purchase price, it is equally true that his speculative 
losses approximated, in many instances, his gains, and would have en- 
tirely offset them were it not for his normal percentage as an actual 
dealer. 

When Mr. Hoover undertook the problem of food control in this 
country he was confronted with numerous, serious phases of the situ- 
ation; among those he faced the task of furnishing our associates in this 
war with the vast food supplies essential for the fighting forces as well 
as for the civilian population. Furthermore, he had to devise logical and 
effective means of stabilizing the prices of the chief food staples, espe- 
cially flour and sugar, and this in the face of an unparalleled situation 
as to means and methods of distribution. 

I shall not here go into the history of Mr. Hoover's plans and progress 
in solving these problems. You are all doubtless familiar with his achieve- 
ments which have been unique and satisfactory. In passing let me say 
that this would not have been possible without the hearty co-operation 
of the government, the fanners, the merchants and the entire civic 
population. 

Perhaps no one thing appeared more important at that time than 
the task of keeping at a minimum the price of bread in this country. 
The average laboring man uses the price of bread as his yard-stick for 
the measure of all other values. Therefore, in order that the tranquility 
of the people might be undisturbed and that wages might be prevented 
from a never ceasing advance to meet the increasing price of necessities, 
it was vital that the basic staple food product, wheat, should be con- 
trolled and stabilized before vast stores of grain were withdrawn from 
the country and shipped to foreign ports. If, therefore, the price of 
wheat was not fixed, it would, under the old laws of supply and demand, 
have sky-rocketed li) unheard-of prices, with resultant chaos. The ulti- 
mate effect on the labor problem would be contemplated only with serious 
concern. 

We must bear in mind, however, that the control of this one product 
required a special act of Congress and that the government was com- 
pelled to provide a capital of $50,000,000 in order to take up all grain 
offered. 

To use this same method for the stabilization of all food products 
would be obviously out of the question; yet it is vitally important that 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 83 

such commodities as potatoes, beans, rice, fruits, meats, vegetables, fish, 
milk, etc., should be kept on a price level in consonance with wages and 
with the general income of the civic population. 

California as a food producer presents a peculiar situation. By rea- 
son of the great variety of climate in the different sections as well as 
the large extent of territory within the state, there is exported more 
varieties of food and also in greater volume, than from any other state 
in the union. Organization among all classes of industries has progressed 
probably to a greater extent than in any other state. This is especially 
true among the farmers, so that we were provided with at least a good 
foundation for this interesting experiment. 

Another factor was the ability, through co-ordination of the pur- 
chasing departments of the ai-my, navy and our associates in the war 
to practically create a market by the purchase, through this combined 
agency, of any commodity desired. 

The extent of the varied industries and products within the state 
may be illustrated by mentioning a few such as: 

Citrous and Deciduous Fruits. 
Wheat, Barley, Beans and Rice. 
Dairy Products. 
Live Stock, Poultry and Fish. 
Sorghum Grains, etc. 

We had, therefore, a variety of food staples with the problem of 
stabilizing the price from producer to distributor. 

As a basis for action, the food control bill provided regulations which 
automatically changed pre-war conditions. These regulations governed 
future contracts, hoarding, re-sales within trades, rebates, and other 
abuses that made for indirect additions to cost and that substituted 
speculation for the primary law of supply and demand. 

As a consequence producers, manufacturers, brokers, dealers and 
those engaged in other lines of activity were more or less unsettled as to 
future policies. The first reaction, due to the elimination of speculation, 
made a larger gross profit necessary than in pre-war times. Producers 
were thrown into confusion because labor and other costs were higher 
and yet they could not move crops any faster than could be absorbed 
by the trade, within 30 and 60 day stock limits. 

It was not difficult, at this time, to interest these people in any plan 
that would tend to clearly define the conduct of their future op>erations 
during the progress of the war. 

As an illustration of the plans adopted I may give a concrete ex- 
ample : 

Rice is grown only in a few southern states and in California. It 
has recently developed into an important food product in this country; 
particularly so since substitutes for flour are in such great demand 
(for the puiposes of the present example, we will not consider import and 
export conditions). 

The factors in California are: 

1. The growers (who plant about 150,000 acres, producing from five 
hundred to six hundred million pounds of paddy rice a year.) 



84 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

2. The rice millers (who mill the paddy into head rice, broken rice, 
rice flour and screenings). 

3. The jobbers and brokers. 

4. The retailers. 

Up to this time we have not considered labor and expense factors, 
taking for our pui-poses existing conditions as a basis for determining 
profits. Considering the first factor — the growers: An organization was 
already in existence styled "The Pacific Rice Growers Association," con- 
troling a large proportion of the acreage. The members of this organi- 
zation w^ere called together that we might ascertain what price would 
enable them to continue production. It was finally determined that 4 
cents a pound would be regarded by all as a fair price on the basis of 
number one gi^ade. 

The millers were next called in and it was finally agreed with them 
that a profit of 50 cents per sack for head rice and certain maximum 
prices for by-products, which made the total price of 7 cents for head 
rice, 6 cents for rice flour, 4 cents for broken rice, etc., would give a 
fair return on the investment of a normal plant. 

It w^as therefore voluntarily agreed betw^een the growlers and the 
millers that each would furnish a grader, and that if they could not 
agree, the Food Administration w^ould settle all differences. 

Under this arrangement the millers purchased from the growers 
direct all paddy rice and apportioned it among the millers on a basis of 
milling capacity. 

Through the Wholesale Grocers' Association and the Retail Grocers' 
Associations it was voluntarily agreed that if the former could buy head 
rice at a maximum of 7 cents, they would sell it to retailers at not to 
exceed 8 cents and the retailers were to sell it to the consumer at not 
to exceed 10 cents. 

All state food administrators were notified of these agi*eements so 
that they could enter into similar plans with their wholesalers and re- 
tailers. The result is that the price of California rice in every part of 
the United States is now 10 cents, plus freight. 

The same plan was adopted and worked out with respect to beans; 
growers receive 8 cents; dealers, 81/9 cents; wholesalers, 91/2 cents; re- 
tailers, 11 cents, and these prices are uniform all over the United States. 

By controling imports domestic supplies can be resorted to first and 
thereafter recourse can be had to imports. 

To me the most surprising development in the matter was the satis- 
faction these plans gave to the growers. Their attitude was well ex- 
pressed by one of their number, who stated in substance as follows regard- 
ing his bean crop: 

"I don't worry now that someone is going to make a big 

profit on my beans and I am not afraid any more that my neigh- 
bor will get more than I do." 

The dealers and growers are now in accord and the dealers treat the 
growers fairly. The dealers realize how easily the growers could do their 
own marketing by reason of their organization. They are prompted, there- 
fore, to keep their sei^ice charge upon the lowest possible basis and the 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 85 

price allowed gives a reasonable return on the investment required for a 
normal turnover. 

As soon as this plan was in operation the price of beans fell from 15 
cents and 16 cents to a stabilized price of 11 cents, to the great gratifica- 
of the public. Similar plans are gradually being worked out for all food 
staples in California and there will be no question about its expediency 
during the war period, where co-operation is assured by reason of the 
patriotism of all concerned and further promoted by government pur- 
chases which tend to establish a market basis. 

The thought which I desire to bring before this body of economic 
thinkers is the feasibility of effecting labor and price stabilization after 
the war by combining proper legislation with governmental administra- 
tion of some such character as is represented now by the Federal Trade 
Commission. 

In this endeavor there should be organized under this commission: 

1. Control of imports and exports of commodities to be stabilized. 

2. Labor, in all its various classifications, affecting such commo- 
dities. 



3. 



Producers of food staples and necessaries. 

4. Manufacturers. 

5. Brokers, jobbers, etc. 

6. Retailers. 

There could then be published, officially, consumers' maximum prices 
for all such foods and necessaries. This of itself would tend to tranquility 
of mind on the part of the people and would go further, it appears to me, 
than anything else towards the elimination of such uneasiness and rest- 
lessness as are reflected in the activities of the I. W. W. and similar un- 
worthies. 

Granting that many former conditions of business will be changed 
after the war, is it conceivable that we will not endeavor to correct the 
old practices prevailing in pre-war times in the handling and distributing 
of food staples and other necessaries? 

Let us look at the results achieved under the working of the sup- 
posed law of supply and demand. Take any food staple. The buyer or 
dealer always worked with the one object in view, of securing a primary 
crop at as far below cost of production as circumstances peiTnitted and, 
in many cases manipulations of various kinds made it possible to secure 
from the producer the product of his labor very close indeed to actual 
cost, if not below. 

The producer was injured by this method. He could not pay his 
debts nor make heavy purchases of either necessaries or luxuries, which, 
were it possible, would make prosperous a never-ending chain of prosper- 
ous people. 

Now what happens to the middleman who has made his bargain? 
Does he at once hand on to the consumer his good buy? Hardly. He 
resells to a speculator or another dealer and so it goes through, poihaps. 
four to ten hands before it finally reaches the consumer. The consumer. 
by this time, is payirfg a high price which, if given to the producer in 



86 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

fair part would have made him extremely prosperous, able to pay high 
wages and become a free purchaser himself. But as it is, for the excessive 
profit of a few middlemen and speculators, the ultimate consumer, the 
producer and laborer stand all the traffic will bear. 

Now we know this can be changed for the better. By eliminating 
speculation, hoarding, resales \^ithin the trades and insisting on products 
moving in a direct line always — we can pay the producer enough to keep 
him in business — the necessary middleman a sure profit — and the con- 
summer \^dll then pay less on the average than now ; in fact, a great deal 
less. Such government control and stabilization of prices would seem to 
indicate a necessity for government control of all food storage and ware- 
house plants to the end that the producer could at the close of the season 
deliver his crops to the government warehouse and take proper warehouse 
receipt, which would be bankable paper, and in so far as the producer was 
concerned, he would have received pay for his product at a knowm seasonal 
stabilized price. Does this result not justify the simple legislation re- 
quired? It has been done and is being done more and more with con- 
stantly increasing success as experience points the way. Will the people 
stand for the old way again? 

Ladies and gentlemen, the people of this world are changing their 
ideas rapidly during these times and many conditions will never return to 
the old basis. If we do not change some of these ourselves they may, 
perhaps, be changed for us ; so let us keep on open mind even to w^hat may 
seem to be very radical innovations. 

With this in mind I do not believe I am proposing a plan that is not 
in line with a common-sense system of distribution that should be stand- 
ardized after the war for all primary staples. 

What I \\'ish to bring also to your attention is that in California 
(almost alone of the states) there are organizations of producers, as for 
instance, the orange growers, the rice growers, the raisin gi'owers, the 
bean growers, and many others. These organizations, by control of the 
major portion of the products in their respective lines, secure for their 
member producers fair prices for such products, making the industry 
profitable to the individual producer. In some instances, such as the 
orange growers, they provide unifomi distribution to all markets through- 
out the states and effectually ehminate waste in glutted markets and 
extortionate prices in famine spots. 

The histoiy and experiences of these organizations have proven and 
are proving their economic soundness, not only from the vie\\i)oint of the 
producer, but the consumer as well, and they point unemngly to a logical 
extension of the plan to all food staples, which under government regula- 
tion and price stabilization all along the line shall secure fair profits to 
producers, middlemen and ti'ansportation agencies, and above all, fair 
prices to consumers, effectually eliminating the element of speculation. 

In closing I hope that the suggestions given here will lead some of 
the practical minds to work out in the neai' future a simple plan that 
\^dll make stabilization of prices and wages a standard practice, at least 
for all food staples and other prime necessaries. 

On motion the m_eeting adjourned. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 87 

THIRD SESSION. 

Thursday morning, March 28, 1918. 

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION. 

"WOMEN IN INDUSTRY." 

The meeting was called to order at ten o'clock by the chairman, Mr. 
W. S. Mac Arthur, of Armour & Company, Chicago. 

THE CHAIRMAN: The program states that this round table con- 
ference is to be devoted to the question of "Women in Industry." We 
are perfectly at liberty to bring up any phase of this question that we 
have had on our minds, and no doubt each one of you have had some 
problem to confront and have found a way of settling it. Several who 
were to be here this morning sent word that they had things they wanted 
to discuss, and when I heard what they were I was very glad indeed that 
those subjects were to be brought up. 

For the last five or six months my time has been almost entirely 
taken up with government work, and I have scarcely been at home one 
day out of two months. Upon returning here a couple of weeks ago when 
Mr. Dent spoke to me about this conference this morning I told him that 
I had certain things that I wanted to bring up and no sooner had I told 
him that I would be here than Uncle Sam wired and I had to leave. I 
just got back yesterday morning, so that prevented me from getting to- 
gether and bringing here this morning the facts that I had gathered in 
visiting the different camps around the United States and during the 
time that I was working in the War Department in Washington on this 
very subject. 

One of the great problems that confronted Armour & Company, 
whom I represent, was the possibility, in fact the absolute knowledge, 
that a large majority of our force composed of young men of selective 
draft age would be taken away from us, and possibly we were among the 
first in the country to employ large numbers of women and put them 
on what we termed an educational roll. We did that for the purpose of 
breaking them into work which we knew we would have to give them 
when some of these positions were vacated. Notwithstanding all our 
advertisements and the alluring things that we hold out to the women 
to come and work for us, it was surprising how few responses we received, 
and when we did get them to come in and talked with them we found 
that in a great many cases they had not been fitted by their previous 
experience in business to handle to work that the men had been doing. 
The trouble was that there were so many men in this country that the 
question of employing women except for very minor positions had not 
been given any consideration whatever. I am speaking of them as a 
whole. That does not apply to all by any means, because we have found 
some extremely capable, but they are the exceptions and not the rule. 
The result was that we had to take the brightest that we could get hold 
of and give them a regular educational course along accounting and other 
lines in order to fit them for the positions we wanted to put them into. 
The result for the last* year and a half has been very satisfactoi-y and 



88 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

we are rapidly replacing the young men who are gone and are still going, 
with these women. They are doing their work exceptionally well. I am 
speaking of the office now. We had previously employed a very few 
women in the plant, but in the office those that we employed were in 
purely stenographic positions. To change suddenly and put in so many 
more women made it necessary to change our office building. We had 
not the accommodations for the women. We had to devise additional 
locker room, w^e had to provide additional restaurant space for them, be- 
cause we let them go to a separate restaurant from the men. We had 
to provide a nurse, sick room and arrange to give them certain time off 
during the day, especially the comptometer operators, who are under a 
gi^eat strain from the position in which they are constantly using their 
hands. We had to have a doctor right close by where he could keep 
track of these different girls and follow them up. We had to have a 
visiting nurse. And the result has been that within the last two months 
we had had to draw plans for the enlargement of our building, that for 
one floor alone to accommodate the women is costing us $250,000. 

That is the difference that the employment of women has made in 
one particular item in our office. Naturally owing to the war we have 
been employing a good many more people. We have just about twice as 
many in our office now as we had a year and a half ago. That is not only 
true with us, but it is true with everyone else that I have come in con- 
tact with, and especially through the East where so many men have 
been taken out. I think they notice it more there than they have done 
in the West, and they are employing women, too, to a very large extent. 

In going around the camps, especially through the South and East, 
the question came up about employing women in a number of positions, 
clerical positions, where the young men are leaving, that is, the enlisted 
men. The govermnent has a good many field clerks, as it calls them, 
who are really civilians com.e under military rule, wear the unifoiTn, but 
they are paid civilian salaries. We found in a number of instances that 
the young mien who were enlisted and detailed to work alongside of these 
field clerks objected because they felt that they were being discriminated 
against. They did not like to perform the same work, sometimes better 
than the man who was next to them and who was a field clerk, and they 
get their thirty dollars a month while the field clerks got their one hun- 
dred and twenty-five. I do not bame them. We found that true in set- 
ting-up and ordnance repair shops, where the men would absolutely re- 
fuse to do the work. They would do it in a way that you could not get 
after them and court-martial them for it, but nevertheless they refused 
to do it. We could not blame them. The problem was taken to Wash- 
ington and it was finally decided that so far as the division heaflquarters 
were concerned where the women could be brought together in one build- 
ing and given proper quarters, properly supervised, that they would em- 
ploy women wherever it was possible and release the men for active mili- 
tary duty. A committee has been appointed by the direction of the Sec- 
retary of War and the plans are now being worked out by which that can 
be accomplished in every camp in the United States. 

Another phase of the question was dealing with the educational in- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 89 

stitutions and this committee was formed in Washington, working under 
the direction of the Adjutant Generars department, and certain courses 
were provided in different educational institutions throughout the coun- 
try, usually of about ninety days, that would fit, not only the men but the 
girl students for definite positions in the service. The women have posi- 
tions in the department at Washington, and the government is advertising 
all over the country for girls to take those places, for they have, of course, 
been compelled to employ thousands and thousands of people there. I 
understand that the population of Washington has increased one hundred 
thousand within the last twelve months. It is almost impossible to find 
accommodations. Wherever these girls accept the positions they are try- 
ing to follow out the English idea of providing boarding-houses and places 
for them before they arrive, so that they will be properly taken care of, 
and the government feels that it is morally responsible for them, and it is, 
of course. They have gone even so far as to employ girls in the navy, and 
they have a definite regulation uniform that is provided. It is astonish- 
ing how well they are performing their work. 

These are only two or three of the things that have suggested them- 
selves to me in regard to the employment of women, and now that the con- 
ference is open here for discussion we would like to hear from each one 
who has particular problems, as to how he has solved them. 

A paper has been handed to me, sent in by Mr. J. P. Brophy, Cleve- 
land Automatic Machine Co., Cleveland, Ohio, which presents the other 
side of the subject, and as it will only take two or three minutes to read it, 
and I suggested to Mr. Dent that we might hear it so that we would get 
M£^ Brophy 's ideas. 

WOMEN IN OUR FACTORIES 

One of the all important questions of the day on account of the war, 
which is something that we read constantly in the papers and is under dis- 
cussion by a great many people is, women in our factories to take the place 
of men. 

It is true that in England and France a vast number of women are 
employed operating machines of different kinds in factories of all descrip- 
tions, turning out war material, but it will be well to remember that Eng- 
land and France have been in the war for thi'ee and a half years and that 
nearly everyone of their populations is either a soldier or producing some- 
thing for war purposes, but that's no criterion that we should lose our 
heads over here on this question, and consider that it is great patriotism 
to have in mind the using of women in shops of all kinds. 

The facts are, we are liable to go to the extremes in this country with- 
out really giving the matter serious thought. 

It is not patriotism to employ women in your shop, excepting the time 
has arrived when it is absolutely necessary, and we ai'e a long way from 
this time at present. Here we have 110,000,000 people, and the time is far 
distant when we will have 2,000,000 mvu at the front. That's a very small 
per cent of our population. 

Women have been employed in shops for a great number of years — 
that must be admitted-x-and in many instances they are employed when 
it should not have occurred. The miglity dollar, of coui'se. was uppei*- 



90 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

most in their minds, and this I suppose is excusable to a certain extent, 
but this condition should not be encouraged. 

The facts are, if you step into a manufacturing plant of any kind 
where parts are made for war purposes, and see a vast number of women 
in overalls standing side by side with men, you get it into your mind pos- 
sibly that this is real patriotism, but in the estimation of the writer the 
idea of women taking such jobs, is because they can obtain exceptionally 
high wages, and the employers of such women are carried away with the 
thought that they are great patriots. 

If you study this question while you are passing through such a plant, 
you should feel in your mind that women with a pair of overalls on mixed 
up with a lot of men in a shop of any kind, is out of place in the extreme 
if it can be avoided. The real nicety of the feminine sex is being disturbed. 

We all have great respect for our wives, mothers and daughters, etc., 
etc., and would not tolerate their working in a machine shop, but some of 
us are delighted to give positions to other women, and have everyone be- 
lieve we have the government in mind. That is what I would call double 
thinking, but always deciding in our own favor. In the writer's way of 
thinking, there is plenty of other work for women while this war is on 
where they can do a vast amount of good outside of a shop. This has 
been proven times innumerable since the war commenced. Anything that 
disturbs that which is feminine in a women is bound to react, and where 
a woman stands up to a machine of any kind, working the same as a man, 
mixed in with men of all kinds, remarks are bound to be passed about her 
that are not very complimentary to her sex. 

A woman that takes a man's job who might be working isolated com- 
pletely from the men, would be another story, having a separate entrance, 
going to work at a different hour and leaving before the men, completely 
separating them. This would seem the most feasible, if this thing has 
got to be because of the war, but you will hear it said in many instances, 
**I have been in such and such a shop. I saw a vast number of women 
running machines and working on benches, putting parts of ammunition 
together, right in the midst of a great number of men, and they do their 
work just as well as the men do." This sounds all right from a commer- 
cial viewpoint, but it sounds all wrong from the viewpoint of exhausting 
our force of men before using the women. 

It makes no particular difference what they are doing abroad, because 
at all times women in foreign countries have never been respected by men 
anything like they have in the United States. In many countries they are 
slaves to the men in every way possible. The United States is supposed to 
be the enlightened nation, caring at all times to protect the gentler sex, 
and the first thing we find out when there is a war on, is that many will 
be over-anxious to obtain women to work in their factories. I would not 
say from a standpoint of making any more money out of them, but a great 
many seem to like to be able to say they have fifty or one hundred women 
in their shop doing just as well as the men. 

This does not cover the point. We have an abundance of men over 
here at this time and will have for some time to come. There is no justi- 
fication in being too rapid in our conclusions in our hiring women. Men 
are intended for such work, and always will be. The man is supposed to 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 91 

be the toiler and go out into the public in any kind of a position and earn 
a livelihood for those at home. 

The home is the real sacred place for women, when you get right down 
to real facts, and they are used in thousands of different industries, but 
they should not be used beside a man in a factory, if it can be averted. 

The dirty jobs in factories that women are now doing belong to the 
men, and there is no question about it. When you disrupt in any way the 
tender feeling that exists between the sexes, you are damaging to a great 
extent their future relations towards one another. 

In the first place, no woman can work in a shop with men and retain 
that something demure, which should be a natural part of her, that is de- 
manded at all times. She is bound to hear language that is disrespectful, 
and there is no question about it. This means, associating with the ordi- 
nary man in the shop is all wrong from an American viewpoint. 

The facts are, it would be better for this country if it were never 
necessary to have women go out and toil for a living. The only salvation 
of our nation is the home, and this cannot be questioned. 

Circumstances in many instances, of course, change all things, and 
this is why we have so many women employed now in different classes of 
work; but there is a great difference between one kind of work and an- 
other when you make the real comparison ; that is, in the associations of 
men and women, that when you think of a number of young women work- 
ing in a factory, there is a certain amount of the nicety of the feminine sex 
lost, and this unquestionably has a damaging effect. 

I contend that the woman should be kept in her proper sphere, and 
when the time arrives, if it ever does because of this war being an ex- 
tended one, that women have got to be used in factories, then let it be done 
without any hesitation. 

The government should have complete control of a situation like this. 
Each municipality should have a list of all the men that are able to work, 
and they should be watched closely to see that they are employed and not 
walking the street, where you will find thousands of them daily. Loaf- 
ers, I would call them. The municipality should also have a report on 
whether these men are working steadily, as there is an immense loss in 
every place of business where a great number of employees are in the 
habit of losing considerable time. When you are getting right down to 
the war, follow the men to the extreme before you attempt to think about 
the women. 

If men persist in loafing the streets, jail them or find some occupation 
where they have got to work for the government while the war lasts. 

Women employed in shops, receiving as much wages as men, is going 
to be extremely detrimental when the war is over, for the reason that it 
creates a false independence for the time being. It may have a tendency 
to retard marriage considerably in the future. 

All these things should be considered very seriously before the manu- 
facturers are even allowed to have women in their factories. 

This is a case of where patriotism is abused. The real meaning of 
the word is not uppermost in the mind of a great many men when they are 
doing things that have a bad effect on the nation. 

Imagine the vast multitude of things that can be done by women out- 



92 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

side of shops. For instance, they might act as shipping clerks to great 
advantage and do all the shipping independent of the men. All men em- 
ployed in stores of every description can be replaced by women, and there 
are thousands of them in every city. A proper investigation of this mat- 
ter would easily prove my contention. 

It is as necessary to protect our women as it is to protect our country 
from a posterity point of view. It is not intended to convey the meaning 
that women in general are weaklings, but when they do a man's work and 
receive a man's pay for such work and mingle with men daily side by side 
in a factory, they are considered by the men to be somewhat unsexed. 

The fine feeling of a man for a woman in such cases is radically 
changed, and it demoralizes the thought that a woman is superior because 
she is a woman, and consequently lessens rather than increases the tender 
feeling a man should have for women, and this is bound to have its effect 
when the war is over. 

Many women who apply for positions in munition factories are driven 
to it because the man or men at home desire it. They have no respect for 
their own families, which makes it easy for such men to find fault with 
their employers and quit the job, and the women actually take their places. 

There is no question but what we are lax in this respect in the ex- 
treme. 

It will be understood, of course, that with a population of 110,000,000, 
which is more than the population of England and France combined, 
where we are preparing about a million and a half men for the war, which 
is an exceptionally low per cent, as they come from all over the country, 
that at this time it should not be necessary to be finding employment for 
women to do men's work in shops, when unquestionably we have plenty of 
men, if they were made to do their duty, to fill up the gap where we are 
short of help, and leave the women remain at home or find occupations 
more dignified that would not have the bad after effects. 

If plainer language were used, it would strengthen this article from 
the viewpoint of real facts, and possibly would shock the skeptical reader. 
Nevertheless the question of too close intimacy of the sexes where the 
woman is doing a man's work in overalls, mingling together daily, is an 
abhorrent thought and damaging in the fullest sense of the word, when 
considering the pitfalls that such associations encourage, and deserves the 
severest condemnation, and the government is master of the situation. 

THE CHAIRMAN: Now the conference is open for discussion. If 
that does not start something right away I will lose my guess. Do not all 
speak at once. 

MR. D WIGHT T. FARNHAM (St. Louis, Mo.) : Mr. Chairman, 
ladies and gentlemen : Before discussing this paper I would like to say a 
word here in regard to investigation. There is such a great deal of opin- 
ion expressed in regard to a great many of these questions that I think it 
is necessary to say a word about the real method which has been advo- 
cated and which is in use by the best sort of industrial engineers. That 
is, laying all the facts out on the table, sorting them over and letting the 
facts themselves form the opinion, rather than securing the opinion in 
some other way. We had occasion not very long ago to investigate this 
matter of the employment of women for a client. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 93 



The district where we made this investigation was near St. Louis, in- 
cluding St. Louis, and the conclusion that we reached after spending some 
time in the investigation was so near Mr. Knoeppel's findings that I 
thought possibly a word about it here might be of interest. 

The method which we employed was to visit as many industries as we 
could in that district and determine in the first place what the women were 
being used for. This particular industry we were interested in was mainly 
moderate heavy work with a small part of it very light work. We went 
to all of the industries that we thought might be using women for moder- 
ately heavy work. We went to the packing houses, we went to certain clay 
product plants, we went to the tobacco factories, and in no case did we find 
women doing very heavy work, not as heavy work as we had contemplated 
using them on. We believed perhaps after we had made this investigation 
that thirty per cent of the work in this particular industry could be done 
by women. Then the question arose as to whether or not we should try 
out women in this industry. Our conclusion was that it was better not to 
do it ; that the local fashion was against women doing the heavier sort of 
work ; that enough men had not gone away to create a sufficient vacuum so 
that the flow of women into the industry could be accomplished without 
friction of one sort or another. 

Of course, when we get to the point at which Scotland is now, when 
they have sent something like nine hundred thousand men out of five mil- 
lion population, when we have sent twenty million men abroad, we are go- 
ing to have a vacuum that is going to bring the women in without protest 
from anybody. I do not mean the sort of protest of the anti-suffragists, 
or some man who gets up, as a woman expressed it once, and wants to see 
that woman is on a pedestal or else chained to a cook stove. That is what 
I mean by the spirit of the anti-suffragists, but that is not the kind of pro- 
test that I am talking about now. What I mean can be illustrated by the 
condition we had on the Pacific Coast in regard to the Japanese. There 
was no feeling against the Japanese unless a Jap took a job away from a 
white man, but as soon as a Jap took a job away from a white man there 
was a fight. But as long as this vacuum was evident to everybody con- 
cerned there was no trouble. 

This investigation that I told you about was made several months ago, 
and we concluded, as Mr. Knoeppel did, that the time was not yet ripe; 
that it was a good thing to get ready for and get the conditions in the fac- 
tories ready for, but if we went out and tried to drag women into these 
industries we would get into trouble. 

That has been illustrated very beautifully recently. The traction com- 
pany in St. Louis tried to do it, but they went too fast. They put on twenty 
or thirty women conductors, and that amused the men for a while. But 
after a little time the men began to complain because the favorite runs 
were given to the women. I won't go into that in detail, but the conse- 
quence was that everybody in St. Louis walked for a week. That is one of 
the dangers in forcing women in too fast. If you wait until the need is 
created, until we have so many men out that it is evident to the men who 
are in that the women are absolutely needed and essential, I beIie\T that it 
will come without very much trouble. But when you begin to force any- 
thing it is like forcible* feeding — it causes indigestion. (Applause.) 



94 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

MRS. M. D. BRADLEY (Rothschild & Company, Chicago) : You 
men are so in the habit of settling things for us women that you have taken 
this question and studied it from your point of view, but it does not seem 
fair to me that you should be allowed to go on without having at least one 
woir(an*s side of the question. 

It does not seem credible that in this day and age anybody could ex- 
press the sentiment that the paper of Mr. Brophy's contains. At least we 
women who work have almost forgotten that there are men who have 
thought like that. But it seems to me that in the report of the question- 
naire last night, which was very comprehensive as far as the one side of 
the question was concerned, that you ought to take into consideration the 
other side of the question. It is a fact that there are women in industry 
now and that there are going to be a lot more women in industry, whether 
you like it or not, and that after the war you will have to consider women 
in industry. Maybe you think this is beside the mark, and perhaps it is, 
but at any rate efficiency engineers ought to be forewarned. 

You know after the war, perhaps within the next year, you are going 
to realize what some of us who hear the stories of women and who know 
about the employment of women are realizing already. I am the educa- 
tional director of a large retail department store. I do not employ the 
women but I talk to them before they go to work, and I hear this as often 
as anything else : "No, I never worked before but my only son has been 
drafted and I have to do something." "No, I never worked before but my 
husband has gone to war and I have to work now." We will hear that a 
lot more before we are through with this war, so whether you like it or not 
you have got to get ready for women in industry, and it seems to me that 
some of the time that is now used in discussing whether you need women 
or not and whether you will use women or not, might be devoted to the 
other side of the question — that many women need jobs and must be pro- 
vided with the means of earning a living. 

It is all very well to talk about not putting them in the factory, and 
maintaining those high standards of chivalry, but the fact remains that 
there are a good many women who never have been asked to marry — I am 
Mrs. Bradley and have two children (laughter) — and then there are a lot 
of women who are widows and must be taken care of, and there are lots of 
women who through one set of circumstances or another have no chival- 
rous men to keep thenl in their place in the home. 

Of course, it is a trite statement to women who think anything about 
these things, and I should not have to remind you of that, but it is true 
that women must work, and the department stores cannot take care of all 
of them. We have been accustomed to think that we could, but we cannot, 
and you will have to find places for women in your work, whether you like 
it or not. 

And then it seems to me that we have all forgotten the fact that if we 
are not going to use made-in-Germany goods we are going to have so many 
new industries in this country that you will be able to use not only all your 
left-over men, but women who need jobs after the war. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN : I think Mrs. Bradley is right. It is not a ques- 
tion of whether we are going to employ women, but it is a question of how 
we are going to employ them. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 95 

MISS MARY McDowell (Woman's Industrial Committee of the 
National Council of Defense) : Mr. Chairman: I heard Mr. KnoeppePs 
paper last night, and went away feeling very much cheered and encour- 
aged. I felt meeting you here, these industrial engineers, that you were 
the group of men, perhaps, who would take this matter under considera- 
tion, even as we women could not quite, and I felt very much encouraged. 
I thought that paper was so scientific, so sane and altogether so wholesome. 
I hope there are a great many to be sent through the country. 

This question is not a matter of suffrage or anti-suffrage. It is not a 
matter of whether gentlemen are chivalrous or not chivalrous. That is all 
past, it seems to me. According to the census we now have over eight mil- 
lion in gainful occupations. We have already millions of women in indus- 
try. So it is not a question of whether men like it or not, nor a question 
of whether any of us like it or not. The whole question, it seems to me, 
was well put last night. We must be prepared for that which is surely to 
to come, in either a small degree or a large degree. 

There is no doubt about it, the railroads have been testing and trying 
out the women. They have put them on, I have seen them with my own 
eyes, filling the places of men. Whether it is necessary or not I am not 
arguing. I thought in many places it was simply a question of a few more 
cents or a few less cents. We know perfectly well that women have always 
been cheap labor, and if we want to protect women and protect men and 
protect industry, women must cease being cheap labor, and if that can be 
brought about in some way then I feel that we will have secured something 
that will protect all of us. There is no doubt about it. I do not mind the 
chivalrous gentleman who talks like the old-fashioned man. Maybe he is 
a very good person to have around once in a while, because we need to pro- 
tect women. They are not organized as men are. They need to be pro- 
tected somewhat. 

I found in the railroads that they were discussing putting women on 
as freight handlers. The question was brought very close to me in Chi- 
cago. One company proposed to put them on as freight handlers, but be- 
fore doing it, like good American men, they asked the women in Chicago 
whether it was advisable to do it, and the women fortunately of the Wom- 
an's Industrial Committee took the matter up and went very thoroughly 
into it and tried to handle the freight themselves, and tried to have some 
husky athletic college women handle the freight, and then they asked the 
opinion of the best gynecologists in Chicago as to what the effect would 
be on a woman of handling freight over twenty-five pounds and up to a 
hundred and twenty-five pounds continuously for over eight hours a day, 
and the opinions were all very strongly against it. So a letter was writ- 
ten to the president of the company, and the president agreed with us, I 
am glad to say, tha t he believed it was too great a risk to run with the 
women, and he did not believe that in America we ought to put the women 
on the level of the European women. That sounded veiy good. 

The women of the Council of National Defense and also of the state 
have a set of standards for government work. All those standards were 
held up and discussed in the paper last night so much better than I can do 
that I will only mention them. There are regulations against tenement 
house work, against child labor, for the protection of mothers before and 



96 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

after childbirth, regulations on the question of wages, hours of work, seats 
for women, extra heavy and hazardous occupations, heavy lifting, expos- 
ure to heat and cold. Those are a few of the subjects taken up by that 
committee. 

General Joffre said that if the women of France and England for 
twenty minutes stopped work the cause of the allies could not be won. We 
have not got to that point yet, I agree, but I see so many indications that 
we may get there, I see so many places where women are being put on 
because they are just a few cents cheaper, that it is time for the subject 
to be considered. To be sure, they are getting larger wages in some places, 
and I believe that those are the places that we must watch veiy carefully, 
to see that they are getting the wages that the men would get now; not 
what the men went out on. 

I found in Cleveland, as I found in Chicago, that the women were get- 
ting the wages that the men had when they left, and not the wages that 
the men would have if they came back now. That may be the only thing 
that can be done, but I feel that if we could establish that higher wage for 
the women that we would protect the women very much. 

I am so glad that you have taken up this serious matter for discussion, 
because you are the type of men who will have great influence in bringing 
about protective conditions in factories for women. (Applause.) 

MISS BENNETT (Collegiate Bureau of Occupations, Chicago) : I 
would like to say just a few words about what the women themselves are 
going to try to do to meet this emergency in the way of really earning 
equal pay. I think that one thing the women are especially interested in 
is not only in asking for equal paj^ for equal work, but in assuring the men 
that they intend to give equal work for equal pay. 

There is a feeling very often that w^omen are coming into this indus- 
trial game in larger numbers and expecting to get the wages of men while 
not delivering the work which men have been delivering. If you talk to 
any large group of thinking women, any large group of hard-working 
women, I think you will find they all agree on this one thing, that it is 
essential that women give equal work for equal pay, and there is a great 
movement not only, as you realize better than I do, in industrial firms to 
train women, but among women themselves, to secure and regulate and 
organize such training, that vromen coming into j^our factories and into 
your shops and into your offices and into your organizations of every kind, 
will be able to give this equal work for equal pay. 

That is the thing that we want to do particularly. We want to pi^ove 
to you that if you take women on in larger numbers you are taking on a 
good industrial risk and a good industrial investment, and with that goes 
the admission which I think we are all perfectly willing to make that there 
are a great many places in which woman labor is not desirable. I was 
interested to hear Miss McDowell speak of the investigation in regard to 
the railroads. There are other places where woman's labor is not good 
labor. It is not labor which can be measured by its muscular value at 
times, and there is certain labor which must be measured, of course, by its 
muscular push and muscular force. Those are not the divisions of work 
in which we think women can be of the greatest service. We want to put 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 97 

our groups of women in where they can do good work and where their 
work will be needed. 

There is, of course, a tendency of employers to take on women because 
they are cheap, and in regard to the paper which you read, Mr. Chairman, 
and which we all enjoyed very much — it was highly entertaining — that 
paper spoke of people taking on women because it sounds patriotic to say 
you have a lot of women working for you, but the fact remains that there 
are many places where you need woman labor on just the type of work 
that women can do, and this great army of women, let me tell you, gentle- 
men, intend to train and educate themselves so that they can go in and do 
this work well and satisfactorily. And so when you have taken on women 
labor and have given them equal pay for equal work, you are going to get 
from them equal work for equal pay. (Applause.) 

MR. FORREST CRISSEY (Saturday Evening Post) : If this is a tes- 
timony meeting, I just want to add something to what Miss Bennett has 
said. After nosing around among the munition factories in the East I 
came back with quite a new set of impressions in regard to women as 
workers. Just for example, I was talking with the manager of one of the 
big munition factories in New Jersey and I said, "How about the work 
that women give you?" And he said, "Why, there is not any use talking 
about it because if I would tell you the truth no one would believe it. If 
you published what I said you would be laughed at all over the country, 
and it would appear perfectly absurd." "Well," I said, "for instance?" 
"All right," he said, "for instance. I will show you a girl if you like who 
was put on a job handled for a long time by a man who thought he was 
some considerable expert, and that it was going to be quite a little job 
for the foreman to find anyone who would fill his shoes." As I remember 
it, this man said that the woman had been on this job when we were talk- 
ing something like two or three months, but he said, "She is producing an 
average of six times what the man produced, and just exactly as good 
work, because it all has to pass careful inspection." 

I have no reason to question this man's statement, particularly as he 
seemed to have a very keen realization of how sensational the fact that he 
gave was, and how it would probably be received by the general public. 

As to the general responses that I got, they were that women were 
giving one hundred per cent for their wages. Miss Bennett said that the 
women were going to train themselves, and right there is a point. Accord- 
ing to the testimony of the superintendents and the men in these munition 
works and the other places where the work is more or less highly fabri- 
cated — I think I have heard some industrial engineer use the word — but 
their testimony was this, that the woman's intuition gives her a short cut 
on the job. She just arrives there by intuition without all the long ap- 
prenticeship. She has an asset in that that the average man has not, ac- 
cording to these men. Then there is a natural manual dexterity that she 
has that these superintendents, foremen and managers with whom I talked 
laid considerable emphasis on. She can just make her fingers behave, 
while the man fumbles and bungles. That is, of course, using an extreme 
for the sake of illustration. But on the average they seemed to think that 
that was the thing that worked out, and as a general rule the women would 
deliver the goods on a. very much shorter training or apprenticeship, and 



98 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

that there were many temperamental reasons why the women were on the 
job to an extent that the average male workman was not. 

I had not any intention of getting into this discussion, being a rank 
outsider, but I just wanted to add a little testimony to what Miss Bennett 
said. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN : We are very glad that you did. I think that is 
right in line with the bulletins issued by the British War Department. 
While they have not given any figures so far as I know along that line, 
they constantly bear testimony to the fact that the work of the women in 
the various factories there is in many instances far ahead of anything they 
have ever had turned out by the men. 

MR. L. S. ROBINSON (President of Robinson Findex Company, San 
Francisco) : You might classify me as being a man who was prejudiced 
against women in business, but I am introducing a mechanical office outfit 
which appears to be complicated, and we have found that women have 
taken to it much more kindly than men. 

We have a farmer's wife who has boys at the front, and she has charge 
of twenty-five girls handling seventy-five thousand names in San Francisco 
for collection for the coming Liberty Loan. This woman, who has never 
had any office experience whatever, is absolutely ruling the office, and the 
committee of one thousand, which is composed of leading business men in 
San Francisco, has given her absolute authority over those records. That 
is one case. 

I have also three or four cases of the same kind which bring out a 
point in this question. If new methods and new devices such as must grow 
out of such a conference as this are to be introduced, if you have a new, 
open-minded class who are not tied up by tradition and habits of the old 
methods, you have an opportunity to fit in the new class to these new 
methods. We have had the most agreeable instances of this. We all 
know the old story that is so often heard, "Well, we never did it that way." 
We don't find that prejudice on the part of women coming in. They are 
willing to try things. 

Another observation which may be a little apart from the subject, but 
it is proper in this conference. I am in the manufacture of a dental spe- 
cialty which is sold all over the world. I had a contract partly closed with 
the largest dental jobbing concern in London, and I had a letter from them 
stating that the contract would not be renewed for the next ten years for 
the reason that after the close of the war, "We figure that the balance of 
exchange will be so in favor of Germany that neutral countries will buy 
from Germany in preference to any other country, and therefore, as your 
specialty is manufactured in the United States we would not undertake to 
enter into any contracts which would bind us to buy from you." 

That is something I have not heard discussed here, but it is a very sig- 
nificant thing. In fact, that letter is of sufficient importance to be brought 
here and read in some session of this conference. I would like to have 
that letter discussed by the men who are here. 

THE CHAIRMAN : I think at some other session of the convention 
it will be well for Mr. Dent to bring that up. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 99 



MISS M. E. HOAGLAND (Diamond Chain and Manufacturing Com- 
pany, Indianapolis) : For two years I have been studying this problem of 
woman's labor from the inside of a manufacturing plant. Many of the 
things that I brought to that factory in experience have been worked out 
in actual practice in my dealings with the women. I have gone through 
the different stages in the manufacturing and learned of things that were 
needed for women. I have refrained from making any announcements of 
what we were doing until I was rather certain of the ground on which we 
were standing. 

It seems to me as we come to this discussion that we need the view- 
point of the women who are doing these things in manufacturing, in offices, 
as well as that of men. I do not think women alone can decide these ques- 
tions. I think we need to discuss them together. As we were brought 
up in homes together to discuss our family affairs I believe that it is time 
that women and men working together should solve some of these ques- 
tions. 

One of the things that we brought out in that paper of Mr. Brophy's 
was that was read by the chairman was that women lose something by 
working side by side with men. I beg to differ with him, and I have the 
two years' experience to back up my viewpoint. Women lose a little bit, 
perhaps, of that peachbloom that men seem to prefer in certain types of 
women, but they gain so much more in their loyalty, their honest pur- 
pose, that it seems to me that we would not wish to exchange what we 
have lost for what we have gained. Women in labor of that sort are not 
different from other women. They are just as feminine, they are just as 
likely to be married from the factory, and they are then in a position to 
have greater opportunities to meet men of their choice. And when men 
and women work side by side, desire to spend their future together, we 
have greater hope for them making a successful marriage. They both 
come to it from the viewpoint of honest labor. There is very little of 
the frivolous that comes into a manufacturing plant. We do have leisure 
moments, but let us remember that all labor is honorable, that the women 
who are coming down from their parlors to the factory do not lose caste. 
There is no class to lose in that case. Do not let us set the women in the 
factory and the women in the fashionable districts apart. They are all 
women, and womanly women. 

Let me emphasize that, because we do not wish our women to become 
mannish, and we do not put them into overalls because it seems patriotic 
and because it is a rather spectacular thing to do. We put them into over- 
alls because working near dangerous machinery they are less liable to 
injury, and that is the only reason that men should ever put women into 
overalls. I do not agree with the idea of the plant in Indianapolis that 
is putting their office women in overalls because their factory women are 
in overalls. The office women are not doing the kind of work that requires 
overalls. It seems to me that we should make some differentiation there. 
If women wish to enter some certain employment it seems to me a good 
reason why they should be given that employment. I do not think that 
any set of human folks should say that another set should do or should 
not do a certain number* of things. I think that it is for women them- 



100 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

selves to work out their own destiny, and I am glad to say that though I 
was raised in an old-fashioned home that my father was new-fashioned 
enough to think that his daughters could do anything that they wished 
to undertake. And that is my attitude towards it. 

Last night one of the speakers was saying that women should not be 
trained from educational occupations into industry. Why not let the 
women decide that? If a woman does not like teaching why should she 
be confined to that part of labor that seems to have fallen to her lot be- 
cause it was the easiest, it was the least line of resistance ? 

I made a memorandum of some of the types of women that come into 
our factory for employment, women who have been deserted by men, who 
have been left with children to support ; we have a large number of those 
women. We have the widows, and just now we are meeting this problem 
of sisters whose brothers have gone to war, and they do not lose that 
demure manner that was alluded to by coming into a manufacturing plant. 

For some weeks a group of women have been taking up the questions 
that will surround women in the preparation for the war. We have made 
a questionnaire for Indiana that just came to me by special delivery this 
morning, a revised copy, and one of the questions we have asked there 
was, "Where women excel in dexterity of hand and quickness of move- 
ment, is higher allowance made in computing their wage rate?" 

That, it seems to me, is one of the cital things that we need to consider. 

Then there is the danger to women of speeding up. We heard Mr. 
Miles not long ago in Indianapolis, and he told us of some of the remark- 
able things that had occurred in British factories in which the women were 
doing fourteen times as much as a man that thought he was an expert at 
his job. But there is great danger there. Women are eager, they are 
alert, but we should not sap in one year's time that energy because a 
woman is a willing worker in that direction. We should hold her back in 
the traces rather than allow her to push the limit of her strength. 

As to this matter of working side by side with men, I wish some men 
sometimes would take up that matter of crowding in street cars and see 
if that is not much more objectionable from the viewpoint of contact than 
is the standing with proper space between them at the machine. 

This whole question is so big and I get so wrought up about it that I 
feel this way, that a stage coach is very picturesque, but not many of us 
would want to go back to the stage coach days.. That, it seems to me, 
is this whole question. Women are here to take up the jobs that they are 
most needed to perform. If you do not need us and we do not want to go 
in, we will stay out. But if we are needed we will go just there and some- 
times we will endeavor to show that we are needed where we have not been 
convinced of the fact. 

I am very much pleased to hear Miss McDowell say that she is going 
to safeguard against women being brakemen and all that. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN: After all, I am a very firm believer in the com- 
mon sense of the average American, and I think that through all this 
question and all its phases that the point that Miss McDowell brought out 
about the safeguarding of women will work itself out in the proper shape, 
because the vast majority of people in this country have good, sound com- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 101 

mon sense and they are not going to allow the women to take up work that 
the men and the public generally know they should not be doing. 

I notice Mr. Beard in the audience, from Sears Roebuck & Co. He 
was president of the Chicago Employment Advisory Club. You employ a 
good many women over there, Mr. Beard. We would like to have your 
experience along that line. 

MR. C. R. BEARD (Sears, Roebuck & Co., Chicago) : Mr. Chairman, we 
have now about fifteen thousand five hundred employees, and I think about 
eight thousand five hundred are women. We have lost in our Chicago 
organization about nine hundred and fifty or nine hundred and seventy- 
five men, a total of over a thousand, counting our branches, and that has 
created a condition termed this morning a vacuum. Our work requires 
largely, it has in the past, young men especially active. The market has not 
afforded a sufficient number of these, and after carefully measuring up the 
job's requirements and all the conditions, we have for some time been put- 
ting on women. Generally the proposition has been satisfactory. We are 
frank enough to say that in some cases we made mistakes ; we did not have 
quite the proper measure of the job; perhaps we did not quite sufficiently 
analyze the capabilities of the women, and we did make some mistakes. 
I think at one time we had about a thousand additional women over the 
regular number. 

Last winter there was quite a change from freight shipment to parcel 
post, due to certain government restrictions and certain cataloging of 
merchandise, that made it necessary for us to have an unusual number of 
parcel post packers. We could not get young men in sufficient numbers to 
handle the work, and by changing a set of fixtures and changing the re- 
strictions in the weight and sizes of packages we organized a force of 
between three and four hundred parcel post packers among the women. 
Some of those women — not many, however — but some of those women 
have exceeded the average output of male packers. On the whole we 
believe that the employment of women last fall has afforded us sufficient 
information for further study. It is all right for people on the outside 
to say you can do thus and so, but with something like two hundred de- 
partments and great ramifications and complications of all kinds in orders 
and shipments, it is not the easiest thing in the world to switch over 
from men to women and have it all work smoothly at first. But we feel 
very much encouraged. 

As regards the wage^ of women as compared with men, there was a 
slight reduction in the starting wage owing to the average low efficiency 
at the start. But the scale has been so adjusted that measured output 
for output women can make the same rate as the men on parcel post pack- 
ing. 

We have tried also women in our shoe department. We are now recon- 
structing some fixtures in our automobile accessory department that will 
make it necessary to use order-fillers, women order-fillers, something that 
a year ago if it had been proposed we would have said at that time that it 
was utterly impossible. 

We have put great numbers of women in our shoe department, inspect- 
ing and rejecting. One o*f the most interesting sights and novel in a way 



102 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

IS to see these women at work. Previously we have always had a corps of 
what we supposed to be necessary expert shoe men to reject shoes. We 
made a careful study of the situation and replaced those men by women, 
with splendid results. We discovered, to our embarrassment almost, and 
it also hurt our pride to think that we did not know before that it did not 
require a man to reject shoes. The women were carefully selected and are 
giving first-class service. 

We believe in the women, and we cannot help believing that eventu- 
ally they are going to be more necessary than they are today, and we are 
preparing to take care of our needs with women as the war conditions 
make it necessary. 

If there are questions I will be glad to answer them. 

MISS HOAGLAND: How many hours a day do they work? 

MR. BEARD: Forty-seven and three-quarters hours a week. The 
women are off twenty minutes before the men. We let our women off at 
5:10 in the evening; the men work until 5:30. That is because of the 
peculiar street car situation we have surrounding our plant. We let them 
off ten minutes before for some years, but it did not result in the proper 
handling by the street car company of our eight or nine thousand women, 
so we raised it ten minutes more and now the women are usually cleared 
from the terminals and are away before the seven or eight thousand men 
come on to the street. 

MISS McDowell : May I ask the average weight of the packages 
the women handle? 

MR. BEARD : The average weight would run about five pounds, but 
there are heavier packages than that. We tried at first to separate all 
light packages from the heavy ones. By changing certain fixtures we 
found that the women could handle the average packages up to twenty-five 
pounds. Then we took as an experiment some of the larger, stronger 
women to see whether or not they could handle the heavier ones. But it 
has not been very satisfactory, and we do not quite feel that a woman 
should be expected to handle packages up to fifty pounds, the government 
limit. 

MISS McDowell : Do the women wear a uniform of any kind ? 

MR. BEARD : The women of their own accord, of their own initia- 
tive, decided on a certain style of perhaps gingham or percale or maybe 
silk, for all I know, an inexpensive apron, the kind that has sleeves in it 
and ties in the back, and these are furnished practically at cost, at almost 
no cost at all. There is no regulation uniform. 

MISS BENNETT: Do you employ any married women? 

MR. BEARD: Yes. We had at one time about eight hundred part- 
time women, women who wanted to work part time, four hours in the 
morning or five hours in the afternoon. 

MISS BENNETT: How do the married women compare in regu- 
larity of attendance with unmarried women? 

MR. BEARD: Not quite so good. The peculiar thing is that the 
women who are in the morning shift, are more satisfactory from the at- 
tendance standpoint than those in the afternoon. The morning force is 
normally always complete, with few absentees. The term that is used in 
regard to the afternoon force is that it is all shot to pieces. We may have 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 103 

twenty-five single women, forenoon women, and may require forty on the 
pay-roll to handle the work in the afternoon, because they are absent for 
various reasons. 

MR. CRISSEY: What do you think are the reasons? What is the 
main reason? 

MR. BEARD: Well, I cover that by just one word, domestic. If 
you are married you know what that means. I don't mean to be imperti- 
nent or discourteous to the ladies, but it means the grocer didn't come or 
the decorator, or a thousand and one things, which is all perfectly right. 

MISS BENNETT: You spoke of the twenty-five single women in 
the morning, and said in the afternoon it required forty. Do you use the 
married women in the afternoon? 

MR. BEARD : Did I say that? 

MISS BENNETT : I was not sure. I thought so. 

MR. BEARD : No, I mean the women who give the morning service 
instead of the afternoon. 

MISS McDowell : Are you still keeping up the part time work? 

MR. BEARD : Yes, putting them on now. 

MISS BENNETT : Would that be because it is part time work, or 
because the part time workers are married women ; are not the part time 
workers as a rule irregular? 

MR. BEARD : I think the married women are subject to being absent 
more than the single women. In fact, I have statistics to show that. But 
taking them all in all it has been a very satisfactory arrangement for us, 
and it has been apparently quite satisfactory to the women. 

MISS BENNETT: Were you successful in getting all the women 
employees that you need, or do you find a scarcity of them? 

MR. BEARD : Yes, we find the same scarcity that other concerns do, 
I presume. I think you know something of that. Miss Bennett, and I am 
sure Mr. MacArthur does. 

There is one thing about the part time women that is not entirely sat- 
isfactory, and that is the bringing into the industrial contact a class of 
women that are physically incapacitated for any work that requires any 
degree of speed or endurance. It is unfortunate. It is not unusual for us 
to have women applying for part time work that are entirely too old for 
any kind of work that we can figure out for them. 

MISS FLORENCE KING : I am one of those women who for more 
than twenty-five years has had to be out making a living, and fortunately 
or unfortunately, in a line of work which necessitates my matching wliat 
wits I have with men every day, so I have to a certain extent been able to 
get their viewpoint and in a measure at least to analyze from their stand- 
point. 

I came in too late this morning to find out who wrote the paper that 
Mr. MacArthur was reading, but I concluded before he had finished it was 
either a man or an anti-suffragist. At any rate it certainly appealed to me 
as an echo of the past ages. Whoever did write it surely does not compre- 
hend that we are living in the twentieth century, and it seems to me a 
work of supererogation to try to even get that person's viewpoint. What 
is the use of wasting ojur time over something that has been dead and 
buried so long ago that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary? 



104 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

Why, gentlemen, just think of what would happen if chivalry becomes a 
lost art! Would not it be terrible if it were possible that men had lan- 
guage with which to express themselves in terms that we do not hear every 
day, and women would have to listen to them if they worked in shops, fac- 
tories or offices or any place else where men were employed also and were 
accustomed to use very vile or profane language ? I wonder if he has any 
language that we do not hear every day, and by some reason or other we 
are able to live through it. We become used to it, I suppose. But those 
are all things, it seems to me, that we have buried long ago and forgotten. 
Now that the conditions are upon us necessitating this change, it is no 
more a question of whether we shall have women in industry or not, than 
it is whether we shall get into this war or not. Are we not in it as much 
as we can be, and are not the women in it just as much as the men? Are 
they not working just as hard as men to try to help win this war? 

The great trouble is it seems that we have for so long in the past been 
used to treating women as little children, not realizing that they are indi- 
viduals, that they have minds of their own, and even ambitions. We have 
many well educated women, capable women, experts, in fact, in their par- 
ticular lines of work, who have been striving for a long time to have an 
opportunity to give the right kind of expression to their work and their 
ambitions. Now that time is here and if women could be given the same 
opportunities for advancement that men are given I believe it would be the 
greatest incentive for better work, and that many places could be filled by 
women that are not filled now. 

I noticed that Miss McDowell said there was a tendency to put women 
into hard laborious positions, on the railroads in fact, and I believe that it 
is true that where those changes have been made women have been taken 
from other occupations and at once thrust into a new situation without 
any preparation or any training at all, requiring very strong men to do 
the work satisfactorily. They put the women in without any training or 
any preparation at all for these new duties. We notice when the govern- 
ment is mobilizing its army it has spent a year getting ready, and our army 
is just getting into the war. Now, where such extreme changes are made 
it seems to me some attention might with profit be given to getting these 
women trained for such positions rather than to take them from one posi- 
tion to another and say, "No, go do the work." It is not a fair chance for 
the women, and I do believe that these different industrial enterprises now 
making the change to woman labor could well consider things of that kind, 
and then too give the women a chance to advance as rapidly as their abil- 
ity and the results of their work will permit. 

Note in this war work the conditions, just a few of them, with which 
able, competent women have had to contend. Take it in England, for in- 
stance, when the medical women in England organized the woman's hos- 
pital corps and offered that to the government of Great Britain. But, oh, 
no, Great Britain could not have women in a capacity like that, not at all, 
they would not accept them. What did these women do? They went 
across the channel and appealed to the government of France. France was 
glad to have them, and their hospital was established in France. Wounded 
soldiers were brought there, and by and by some British soldiers came 
there. After a while England learned that it was an actual fact that their 



LABOR PROBLEMS. UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 105 

British soldiers were going to that woman's hospital, and they made some 
inquiries to find out about it, and they found that the soldiers preferred to 
go to the woman's hospital. Then the next question was why, and the 
word came back from the soldiers themselves that it was because these 
women were not so quick to amputate arms and legs and make these men 
cripples for life, until the last thing had been done that could be done to 
save them. Why, men rush in and it don't make any difference what they 
do; it does not mean anything to amputate an arm or a leg, and so the 
work goes on, and it was passed around that the soldiers liked best to go 
to the woman's hospital because they had that consideration that meant so 
much to them in after life. 

Now, take in our own country when the medical women of New York 
organized their woman's overseas hospital and offered it to our American 
government. "No, we cannot have women in those positions. Offer it to 
the Red Cross, if you please. No, no." Then what happened? The 
women simply managed it themselves and sent that hospital corps over- 
seas, and they are there now and they are doing good work. 

Those are some of the obstacles that women have to meet. Able, 
capable, well-trained, highly educated women. It seems to me it is time 
we as Americans who like to boast that we are the most progressive nation 
on earth, it is time that we shall consider these problems from that angle 
and give the women the opportunity of doing the very best they are capa- 
ble of doing, and you will find it recognized that efficiency is the keynote, 
speed is the watchword, and patriotism the inspiration that will put the 
whole situation over the top, and America will emerge from this war and 
still be the greatest nation on earth. (Applause.) 

MR. W. D. GILLILAND (Selby Shoe Company) : We are engaged in 
the State of Ohio in that mysterious business which has to fit the fancy to 
match the millinery and perhaps to fit the foot of the lady. We make shoes. 
We find it difficult to get women to accommodate themselves to some of the 
positions which were formerly filled by men. I want to contribute briefiy 
my experience within the last five months, in order that I may get some 
assistance from some of you operators who have succeeded in solving some 
of the difficulties which up to date we have been unable to solve. 

There are some respects in which women have been shown to be supe- 
rior, in putting women on men's jobs. In a few instances we find that the 
production has increased. We also find that in putting women in depart- 
ments where there were only men and where there were a pretty rough 
type of men, rough in their actions and in their nature and rough in every 
other way, that we were very much gratified to find that instead of the 
women being dragged down to the level of the men or finding it so disa- 
greeable there that they would quit on account of these surroundings, 
quite the reverse has taken place, and the men cut out their swearing and 
their vile language, and they have modified themselves to accommodate 
themselves to the women in the department. Those things have been very 
gratifying to us. 

Some of the unfortunate things arc these: A great deal of work in 
our line of business is moi-e or less distasteful to women. For instance, 
the use of stains on shoes, which must be used witli the hand, gets the 
hand permanently stain*ed. A man doos not mind that so much, but it is 



10 6 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

a tremendous sacrifice to a woman to engage in work which permanently 
stains her hands. It is hard for her to overcome that. Again, there are 
odors which are disagreeable, shellac and cement and one thing and an- 
other, and a woman hesitates very much at going into a position, even 
though the work may be light and the remuneration may be adequate, that 
has a disagreeable odor about it continuously, and we have had some diffi- 
culty along that line. 

Another thing, it is an occupation which is a light occupation for a 
man and not difficult, but it requires constant standing on the feet. Here 
is a rack of shoes, several shelves of them, if you please, and the operator 
must stand up so that the shelves can be reached, so that he can operate 
the pedal on the machine and at the same time handle the shoe. We do 
not like to ask a woman to stand up, and we have a seat where she can go 
and sit down when she becomes exhausted. Yet those shoes must move 
along the line; here is the operator at the left waiting for the shoe to go 
on with the work, and if one stops the whole line of work stops, and the 
women are ambitious and eager to do their part. We find they are in- 
clined to over-exert themselves and not use the seats which have been pro- 
vided for them. That is one difficult^' we have not been able to solve to 
our satisfaction yet. 

Speaking of the women being ahead of the men and putting out a 
greater production, we find that to be misleading. A woman goes to a 
position of that kind where the work is new and she is ambitious and 
wishes to succeed as well as her predecessor, and while that may be all 
right for a while, we must not depend too much on that, because we would 
overwork the woman and possibly take too much of her ambition and her 
desire to succeed. That would not be permanent in the long run, and I 
think the results would be disastrous rather than favorable in the end. 

I was interested in the question in regard to married women being 
irregular in attendance. That is one of the big difficulties. In much of 
the work that we have to do we cannot expect a college graduate, however 
patriotic she may be, to come and offer her services in those lines of work. 
They are too disagreeable and too distasteful, too hard. She is not used to 
the factory system and she would not want to do it. We cannot expect 
educated women to do it. Therefore, we have to depend to a great extent 
on ignorant women and women who must work, women whose husbands 
have deserted them and wom.en whose sons and husbands have been called 
to war, into the service, and we must try to utilize women of that type in 
these positions, and we find it very difficult to keep our system intact and 
keep our work going and keep our production as regular as it should be, 
because of the different domestic difficulties. Harry has the measles, or I 
have to go to the countiy to see a relative, and a thousand and one reasons 
of that kind. 

Another difficulty is that this matter has been rather extensively ad- 
vertised, and a woman thinks she is doing a patriotic duty by taking a 
position in the factory, and she comes there with the idea that she is con- 
ferring a favor in offering her services, and she must be given more con- 
sideration than any manufacturing concern can afford to give to a woman 
of that kind, and w^hen the least little difficulty comes up she takes the posi- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 107 

tion that she is doing this as a favor, and if you haven't sense enough to 
appreciate it and make it easy for her, even though it may be at great 
expense to you and the work will not stand for it, she will seek employ- 
ment elsewhere. 

Also it is difficult for a married woman who has been in a home and 
has never worked in a factory to adjust herself to factory conditions. Here 
is a married woman who has children, who has had the respect, perhaps, 
of the people in her home and has been the head of a house, to come in and 
work under a foreman and simply be one of a number of other people who 
must get their work done and must get it done properly, and it is very 
hard for her. However courteous people may be, if there is a feeling that 
she is simply a very insignificant cog in a very large wheel, that is very 
irritating to her and depressing, and she very often feels that it is neces- 
sary for her to quit work of that kind. 

We unfortunately happen to be in a town where an immense ammuni- 
tion plant has been expanding very rapidly and where large wages are 
paid and where they take w^omen without asking any questions and can 
easily pay them higher wages than we can in our business, which is one of 
the oldest industries in the country and where the margin of profit is com- 
paratively small. As a result of that we find that we cannot get the women 
to do the work. Within the last five months we have put on two hundred 
women on positions which were formerly occupied by men. We have two 
hundred more positions where we would like to put on women, positions 
which were formerly occupied by men, but we cannot get the women. 

The question naturally arises, why not go out of town and get them 
some place where they are more plentiful. Unfortunately we have not 
housing conditions which are such that we would feel justified in asking 
any girl to come from the outside, and we have not yet devised any scheme 
whereby we can provide proper housing facilities for girls who come from 
out of town. 

If any of you have any suggestions to make which would be helpful 
along these lines we would appreciate it very much. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN : It is time for us to close. It is always difficult 
in a meeting of this kind to wind up the session, because the longer we talk 
on these problems the more things come to mind which we want to discuss 
and solve. I am sure that every one here this morning has received a great 
deal of profit from this conference. I know I have. 

On motion the meeting adjourned. 

FOURTH SESSION 

Thursday Afternoon, March 28, 1918 

"MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT— ITS FUNCTION IN REPLACING 

MEN'' 

Mr. Leon I. Thomas, Managing Editor, Factory Magazine, chairman. 

The meeting was called to order at 2 :00 o'clock, and all joined in sing- 
ing America. 

THE CHAIRMAN :, As Mr. Emerson pointed out yesterday in his 
interesting and thought-stimulating address, one method of solving the 



108 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS ^ 

servant girl problem is to sidestep it entirely, to sidestep it by getting the 
work done outside. He pointed out that the family washing is now the 
job of the laundry. Many households now avail themselves of the oppor- 
tunities offered by restaurants for eating. They even go outside for light, 
and in some cases for heat, and have it piped into the house. He might 
also have suggested that another method of sidestepping the problem was 
by the greater use of mechanical equipment. The washing machine, for in- 
stance, the vacuum cleaner, is doing much to render less acute the servant 
girl problem. Cannot many of the present-day factory labor problems also 
be sidestepped as it were by a greater use of mechanical equipment in 
place of labor? Of course I realize that the use of the word sidestep is 
only another way of saying to put off, or to pass on to the next man, and 
I appreciate that the big fundamental labor problems cannot be side- 
stepped, but are there not local labor production problems in particular 
that may be handled by an ample use of mechanical aids to men? It is 
this side of the problem that we are to discuss this afternoon, and I believe 
ably so. 

As Mr. Bemdt said yesterday afternoon in his talk on the purposes of 
this convention an entire series of meetings might be held on this subject 
of the mechanical equipment and its function in replacing men alone. 

About a year ago, just before the annual convention of the Western 
Efficiency Society, a man came into my office with a view to obtaining from 
our company an exhibit flor the convention. He very calmly planned that 
exhibit, planned it, scheduled it and dispatched it. Furthermore, he had it 
on time. Mr. Ford, I know, knows a lot about planning, scheduling and 
dispatching, and we are fortunate in having him here this afternoon to 
talk upon that subject, 'Tlanning, Scheduling and Despatching," by W. S. 
Ford, manager efficiency department, Montgomery Ward & Company, 

"PLANNING, SCHEDULING AND DESPATCHING." 

W. S. FORD. 

Until lately, we, as a nation, have not been greatly concerned about 
our failings because our failings did not mean disaster. Seemingly, there 
was an abundance of everything and the limit of our resources was never 
in sight. 

With complacency we might throw away the valuable by-products of 
our industries, give little heed to the efficiency of our labor. 

In addition to our material resources, we were seemingly blessed with 
all the time there was. The speedy foot work of the State Street crowd hur- 
rying to lunch is the marvel of the world, but after — I won't say how 
many years of procrastination as to subways — the same crowd crawls 
home on the patform of a street car or suffers the sweet communion of the 
"L" train. 

The last ten years have heard much of efficiency and of scientific man- 
agement. As a matter of being progressive many business men have ap- 
plied the principles and prospered along with others who did not apply 
them. The waste of material, time, and efforts, have not necessarily meant 
failure in business. 

Examples of inefficient but extremely prosperous enterprises have left 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 109 



the impression that modern methods are a sort of final polish to a business 
built by the strong but reckless blows of an axe and sledge. 

But mere rugged strength of resources no longer protects us. Our 
point of view has changed greatly in the last year. To our great surprise 
we have learned that in the midst of plenty it is possible to suffer want and 
that we must value each day's effort in the same terms that we value all 
that is good in our national life. 

As a nation we know now the consequence of failure to plan and pre- 
pare. We are learning to think in terms of time and more than that we are 
acquiring that mental discipline and determination and seriousness of pur- 
pose so absolutely essential to the timely execution of any plan. 

Mr. Knoeppel at the National Conference last May said: "No longer 
can we continue in the wasteful pleasure of seeking an extravagant path 
we have been traveling in the past, and continue to survive as a nation, for 
the very good reason that a stong and vigorous power whose gospel of 
'right makes might' whose utter disregard for all the laws of humanity and 
international control and intercourse is every day doing its utmost to domi- 
nate and force its will upon the rest of the world. 

In this conflict of autocracy against democracy: of the rule of divine 
right as against the rule of a free people, the final decision is going to rest 
with the United States of America — ^you and I. How we decide depends 
entirely on whether we look upon this conflict as a six-round sparring con- 
test, or a gruelling prize fight with bare fists and no ring rules : or whether 
we consider it just another border skirmish or war of the most hellish 
variety. 

The time for talking, for criticism, for ridicule, is over — from now 
on our slogan must be ACTION ! — action of the most vigorous kind ; action 
in which individual differences must be forgotten ; action in which all must 
put their shoulders to the wheel and with a mighty heave do their bit in 
making this old world of ours a proper and fit place for ourselves and our 
children to live in.'* 

Those words have a serious meaning to us to-day, which they did not 
have last May, however, well we realized their truth. We watch the re- 
ports from the front and are grave because there is one thing our country 
lacks — and that thing is time. Time to organize, to train, to construct, to 
transport. The time factor enters into every Government contract and we 
are learning a new art, the efficient use of time. 

It is the purpose of this paper to briefly review and emphasize the 
principles of planning, scheduling, and dispatching through which indus- 
try will organize to accomplish results in the time allowed. 

Let us consider first those manufacturing plants which during the 
current year must partially or completely discontinue their regular prod- 
uct, re-arrange and re-equip their factories, train their organizations in 
new and unfamiliar work, and maintain intensive production schedules. 

They cannot wait for the slow process of evolution and adjustment, 
letting each day more or less take care of itself but must lay out a compre- 
hensive plan, an intensive schedule, and make the most economical and ef- 
fective use of time in their execution. 

Of necessity they must adopt broad fundamental principles of Scien- 



110 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

tific Management which may be roughly grouped under four heads: 

Organization. 

Plant and Equipment. 

Methods. 

Labor. 

Regardless of petty personal aims and ambitions the organization 
chart must be clean cut with definite clearly defined duties and responsibili- 
ties. 

There should be a fixed organization policy as the first step in stand- 
ardization and preplanning. A co-operative spirit with a strong central 
control should wipe out friction and the tendency to shift responsibility. 
True, lining up an organization that has followed certain grooves for years 
takes time, but if the plan is right no more favorable time for putting it 
into effect could present itself than the period in which men are bound with 
common purpose as in the present hour of necessity. 

In the matter of plant and equipment where conditions are to be made 
and new machinery installed, the opportunity and necessity for scientific 
layout cannot be too strongly emphasized. How much more satisfactory 
from the standpoint of speed, eventual economy and working conditions to 
lay out a consistent scheme for expansion and to plan the flow of work and 
arrange machinery by use of floor diagrams and templates. The details of 
methods has no place in this paper. We can only hope to point out how im- 
portant it is not to let the haste of re-organization cause proper and scien- 
tific planning to be confused. 

It is with methods that we are primarily concerned. 

The purchasing agent has no enviable position. On the one hand there 
is a difficult material market, on the other, the most drastic demands for 
delivery. His purchase control plan must be comprehensive, up-to-the min- 
ute, free from red tape and in close co-operation with the shop stock and 
production records. He does not dare throw up his hands at a difficult 
stock control problem. He must solve it and the experience of other plants 
is at his disposal for the asking. 

A much neglected but important factor in saving time and preventing 
mistakes in the handling of drawings and patterns is the assigning of sym- 
bols to machines, tools and the product itself. Symbols which are not cum- 
bersome and which provide a shorthand method of positive identification 
and classification should be designed and used from the start. 

When it comes to methods for production control, the problems are, of 
course, as diversified as the very plants themselves, but there are certain 
fundamental principles, a certain general procedure which may be said to 
apply to them all. The first of these is the centralization of control. It 
would seem almost unnecessary in this progressive age to mention this 
very important factor for successful factory management, but what passes 
in main instances in the mind of the plant manager as "Central Control" 
is at best but a half-hearted and unsuccessful plan. 

What is everybody's business is bound to be nobody's business and 
when the responsibility for getting out work is passed from one foreman to 
another like a medicine ball, you will know the result. An organization 
taking on Government work, especially where speed and prompt co-ordina- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 111 

tion is so important, should know what "Central Control" really means and 
not be content with any half-hearted substitute. 

Planning a centralized production system requires preliminary stand- 
ardization, of which proper stock records, symbolization of parts, draw- 
ings, machines, tools, dies, etc., standardization of equipment and standard 
outputs for machines are all a part. In brief, it is absolutely essential that 
there be on file the necessary data from which can be predicted with rea- 
sonable and practical accuracy just how each job should go thru the shop. 

Planning to meet labor conditions both now and after our boys come 
back and business undergoes a re-adjustment, takes on a somewhat differ- 
ent aspect than formerly. No far sighted man doubts for a moment but 
that there will be a greater Democracy in Industry five years from now 
than even the most radical thinkers have been wont to predict. 

If on such a tremendous scale as the mobilization of the army the sci- 
entific selection of men for the work for which they are best fitted is now 
in effect and successful its universal application to industry is assured for 
the future. If the government now takes into its hands the control and dis- 
tribution of labor, its interest in just wages and conditions of employment 
will not end with the war. And so whatever the pressure of re-adjustment, 
the problems of selection, training and wage payment should be a carefully 
thought out part of the plan. 

We are forced in this brief paper to deal in generalities. If there was 
ever a time when Industrial Engineers had an opportunuity to prove the 
efficacy of the principles for which they had been contending it is now. 

But what of the plants that are continuing their usual line of work and 
are suffering only the difficulties caused by the draft and general market 
conditions. 

The answer is found in every morning's paper. From the other side 
come the words: "Hurry! hurry!" On this side you see the answer, "give 
us time." 

Do not pass blame onto the Government. It is up to us to look within 
ourselves and our own plants and see what we are doing. Here the same 
principles for organization, plant and equipment, methods, and labor con- 
trol apply just as strongly as in a plant under direct Government super- 
vision. There should be the same definition and tightening up of the or- 
ganization. There should be the same scientific planning of plant layout 
and the arrangement of machines. There should be a rehabilitation of 
methods and old worn out slow schemes should be judged for what they 
really are and promptly replaced by others in keeping with the present 
emergency. The selection, training, care and payment of workers must 
receive more thoughtful and perhaps radical consideration than ever be- 
fore. 

And so one of the first steps in the solution of our national problem is 
thoughtful efficient planning, from the president on down. We must look 
into the past for the experience from which to construct our plan and into 
the future to determine what that structure should be. 

After we have said what we intend to do, our interest is next centered 
around the line of accomplishment. We may plan almost anything but to 
bring that plan within a time limit is altogether a different thing. I be- 



112 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



lieve I am safe in saying that 90 per cent of business organizations are not 
even attempting to follow a rigid time schedule on production. 

In manufacturing we find some of the best examples of carefully- 
worked out schedules in the automobile industry because that industry re- 
quires not only a revamping of plans with each season's changes in styles, 
but also careful chosen dates for deliveries. Even automobile plants which 
make no claim to operation under scientific management as it is commonly 
known, must from the nature of the business, set certain times for the 
performance of their activities. 

In mercantile lines, the large mail order business is one which is forced 
to adopt a rigid schedule for each hour of the day and a time allowance for 
each step in the progi^ess of the customer's order. 

Such a time schedule for each step in handling an order is somewhat 
as follows. 

The day is divided into ten minute periods and a certain quota is 
handled every period. An order received on the early morning's mail is 
split up by divisions reassembled at a definite time, at a definite place and 
with surprisingly few exceptions is on its way to the customer the same 
day. Each ticket has shown on it the time and place at which all the goods 
belonging to it shall meet. The merchandise divisions are allowed say 
21/^ hours to handle and the penalty for being ten minutes late is severe. 

Those who have never worked under the pressure of strict schedule 
have little conception of the mental discipline and the strict attention to 
business required to maintain it. Neither have they experienced the deep 
satisfaction of seeing work come thru with clock like regularity. 

The executionof the plan and the schedule we will call despatching. 
Despatching presupposes control and successful control depends upon 
standardization of the four broad factors we have named : 

Organization. 

Plant and Equipment. 

Methods. 

Labor. 

Most of us have some idea of the ingenious and elaborate plan in use 
in the Franklin Automobile Plant where from a room located in an upper 
story is controlled the flow of work thru that big factory. 

Mr. Muther of Gishold Machine Co., who will speak to us may tell us 
about the standardization of machine tools which must provide proper 
control. Mr. Berndt, who will speak tonight, may tell us of the patient 
study of all factors which preceded the successful operation of the Ryer- 
son despatching plan. 

The customers of all scientifically managed plants and hundreds of 
others can testify to the efficiency of the simple but comprehensive formula. 

A Complete Plan. 

A Strict Time Schedule. 

Standardized control of despatching which will execute the plan and 
schedule. 

Uncle Sam in his hour of need may expect that we will apply it and 
make good. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 113 



L 



THE CHAIRMAN: I am willing to admit of a personal favorable 
bias, but it seems to me that the speakers' committee has exercised rather 
good judgment in putting a managing editor as one of the regular speak- 
ers this afternoon, and so I take great pleasure in introducing the next 
speaker, Mr. A. Russell Bond, managing editor of Scientific American, New 
York City, whose subject is "Mechanical Aids to Man." 

MR. BOND : Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : It is considered 
poor form to open an address with an apology, and therefore, I am not 
going to apologize, but at the same time I think I owe you an explanation. 
This is the explanation without an apology. Years ago, many years ago, 
when I was at college, I was told to write a composition backwards, to start 
with the conclusion first and then you have a destination to which you can 
direct your argument. After that write the argument and the introduc- 
tion, and last of all, the title. Not until you have your paper complete do 
you know what to call it. 

Unfortunately in this case I did the wrong thing. I gave out the title 
first. I blame it all on the telegram. There is something magic about a 
telegram, there is a compelling power. I came across an illustration of this 
also in my college days, a situation I met in a comic paper, and I did not 
realize its full significance at that time. I don't think Mr. Newlywed did 
either. It was the day after the honeymoon, and Mr. Newlywed dragged 
himself to the office and plunged into business. He was handed a telegram 
reading, "Dear George, please come home at once, I am dying." Naturally 
Mr. Newlywed was panic stricken. He took the first train to Darlington 
and fell into the arms of his beloved bride. After the customary greetings 
he said, "You said you were dying." Mrs. Newly wed's explanation was 
that the telegraph agent would not let her write more than ten words for 
twenty-five cents. "I was going to say 'I am dying to see you' ; but my ten 
words ran out." (Laughter.) 

In my own case it was a telegram which I received from Mr. Dent, in 
which he asked me to prepare a paper to be read at this conference, and he 
asked me to reply by wire. I did not stop to consider, but immediately sent 
him a wire saying that I would speak on "Mechanical Aids to Man." Had 
I stopped to consider I might not have prepared the paper at all. Certainly 
if I had I should have reversed the title and made it read "Human Aids to 
Machines." 

"MECHANICAL AIDS TO MAN." 

A. RUSSELL BOND. 
Recently, one of my associates on the staff of the Scientific American, 
Mr. J. M. Bird, undertook to investigate the productive capacity of man in 
the present day as compared to his capacity a hundred and fifty years ago 
— or before the age of machinery. He found the task a very complicated 
one, but he arrived at certain conclusions, from which I shall quote at 
some length, as they have a distinct bearing on the subject as announced in 
the program. His method of procedure was to investigate various occu- 
pations of former times, find out as best he could the quantity of products 
that a man could turn out in a given time, and compare this with the work 
of a man today who employs up-to-date machinery for the same class of 
product. He found that the type of machine containing the greatest labor- 



114 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

saving potentiality is the multiple-unit one. ''Here, each unit replaces a 
single man worker, for the units are so combined that many of them are 
handled from a single control by a single operator. The units may work 
faster than the man, but this is an incident. The inherent advantage lies 
in the fact that here we have actual multiplication of the operative's hands. 
The example par excellence is the spinning wheel. Here, one girl in charge 
of several thousand spindles, will turn out from 10 to 12 thousand times 
as much cotton yarn as her great grandmother's mother could produce on 
the spinning wheel with its single spindle. In one type of mule the exact 
figiires are 820,000 yards per hour against 75. Knitting and weaving ma- 
chines are not so effective, because they require more attention from the 
operator, who accordingly, does not care for so many of them. Even so, the 
ordinarv^ power loom increases the individual output of from 40 yards per 
week, to well above 3,000 — a factor of 75 or more." 

In this way he went through the various types of multiple-unit ma- 
chines, not only in the textile industries, but in other lines of work as 
well, and finally arrived at the conclusion that from 75 to 100 seemed to 
represent a very fair general average for the productive factor of the 
multiple-unit machine. 

'The second fundamental t>iDe of machine is the one which requires 
an operative for each unit, and here the economy depends solely upon 
speeding up the work. It is in the book and magazine factory that we find 
the most consistent reliance placed in the single unit mechanism. The 
linotype, for instance, does the work of from four to eight hand composi- 
tors, with six as a fair average. On the old Ben Franklin press, requiring 
inking, insertion of paper, scre"^ing do^^Ti and scre'^ang up again, and re- 
moval of the sheet, it was hardly possible to strike off more than 30 im- 
pressions per hour of four pages each. The latest flat bed press has a 
practical capacity of 1,400 impresions per hour and, printing 16 pages at 
each stroke, we get 22,400 pages an hour, against 120 by hand. Under 
union conditions, three men are required for two presses; so, in practice, 
we get a factor here of 120. But an automatic is now on the market which 
makes it easily possible, as far as the machinerj^ itself is concerned, for 
one man to run two presses. On this ground, without reference to extrinsic 
restrictions, it will be seen that the printing machinery is capable of mul- 
tiplying the book printer's capacity by 360. In the bindeiy, we find the 
gathering machine collecting the pages of five volumes while a girl is doing 
one. The case making machine does a rather complicated job of cutting, 
fitting and pasting, and shows a factor of at least 10. The machine which 
puts the book in its jacket imitates closely the hand-worker's technic and 
attains a factor of somewhat less than 3." 

Turning from this to other classes of work, we finally arrive at the 
figure 10 as a fair average factor for the single unit machine in all fields. 

"There are other machines that so revolutionize the way of doing 
things that there can be no comparison ^^ith the hand worker sufficiently 
close to justify either of the preceding classifications. One such type is 
that which receives the raw material in bulk and delivers the finished art- 
icle — more often than not counted and packed. The web press for news- 
paper printing, will turn huge cylinders of paper into finished news sheets 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 115 



fc 



at the rate of 288,000 8-page papers per hour. Ten operatives are em- 
ployed on the machine which gives us 230,400 pages per man per hour. 
This is something like 8,000 times as fast as Benjamin Franklin could have 
done the job.'* In the case of the web press the machine is really a factory 
in itself ; on the other hand, we must consider many of our large factories 
as huge machines in which "the raw materials flow in in a steady stream 
at one end and emerge at the shipping platform as the finished product. 
Automobiles, shoes, canned goods, etc., are some of the commodities whose 
mode of production is known to follow this plan." The only way to arrive 
at a comparison is "to divide the total output of the factory by the num- 
ber of employes and compare the output per man, thus found, with that 

of a single hand worker When we make anything so complicated and 

heterogeneous as an internal combusion engine, or a pair of shoes, we in- 
evitably find many operations that must be done by the slowest of ma- 
chines or even by hand. When these form a governing factor in the output, 
we must either slow down the faster items to the pace of these slower ones 
or employ a disproportionate number of men at the slow jobs." Another 
complication is the fact that when a shoemaker makes a pair of shoes, 
"every second of his time spent in the work goes to the advancement of 
the job in hand, while in a big factory there may be hundreds of workers 
who never handle any part of the finished product. Again, a shoe maker 
buys many small parts, such as eyelets, laces, etc., which, in a big factory, 
are worked up in the raw." 

Considering all these complications, of which I have enumerated only 
a few, the conclusion is finally reached that the average factory of assem- 
bled goods would be about 5. 

Another class of machinery considered is that which affects economy 
"by taking a bigger bite of work than a man could handle. A good-sized 
bucket dredge, for instance, may multiply the efficiency of the worker by 
a hundred. The lifting and loading magnet moves 90 tons of metal per 

man per hour, against 1 1-2 tons by a longshoreman in the old way The 

huge loading and unloading machines of the Great Lakes may replace al- 
most any number of men from a hundred up; the bigger the job, the big- 
ger the saving." For motor transportation 5 is the factor arrived at, 
while freight transportation by rail shows a factor of about 25. 

The final conclusion from all these figures is that a man today is pro- 
ductively worth ten men of the period of 1750 to 1800. 

Undoubtedly machinery has done wonders for man as a whole, but 
what I wish to consider in this paper is the relation between the machine 
and the man who operates the machine. When the primitive man first 
took up a stick of wood to defend himself against the beast, he was mak- 
ing use of a machine element; and this application of the lever certainly 
was an aid to the man. Gradually, very gradually at first, he began to 
develop other uses of this machine element and to acquire knowledge of 
other machine elements. Then he learned to combine them into machines 
that were strikingly useful. He began to use the powers of nature to 
drive the machine. The machine began to do the greater share of the 
work, until the relation between the man and the machine was reversed. 
The machine did the work with the help of the man. 



116 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

Certainly a power-driven machine can hardly be classed as a mere aid 
to man; the man and machine do a certain work together, but they are 
not yoked together. The machine does the hauling and the man does the 
driving or directing. This is even true of many machines that are driven 
by human power. The machine actually does the work. It takes the 
energy furnished by the operator, multiplying it either in speed or in 
power, or otherwise utilizing it in a far more efficient way than a man could 
himself. And so we have certainly come to the age in which we can truth- 
fully state that the machines are our workers and the operators are the 
directors of the machines. 

I do not like the word ''labor," as applied to the work of man in the 
industries. It always seems to indicate a great muscular effort and weari- 
some toil. While this may be true of many operations, we are rapidly 
advancing to the point in which the operator has less and less use for his 
muscles and more and more use for his brains. I think that the industrial 
engineer has a mission to perform in emphasizing this point for our in- 
dustrial classes, showing the operatives that machinery takes them out of 
the laboring class and makes them directors of machineiT- 

I should like to see the name "Labor Union" changed to "Director's 
Union." Please understand that I have not a word to say against the 
members of Labor Unions or their organization. They have dignified the 
word "labor" so that it has lost much of its original significance ; and yet 
it did originally mean wearisome work and great muscular effort. But 
now we are gradually getting away from such toil and have entered a new 
era — an era in which brains count for more than muscle. 

Man has developed marvellous mechanical contrivances. We have 
machines that can do almost an5i:hing that a man can do. We have 
machines that can see! machines that will keep watch of the smoke stack 
of a steamer and, if dense smoke comes out of the stack, will notify the 
engineer below, so that he can attend to the proper firing of his fuiTiace. 
There are machines that can hear — that can take do\^Ti a speech and record 
it on a wax cylinder, and which can then reproduce this speech exactly as 
it was given to them; machines that listen for the throbbing of the sub- 
marine's engines ; railroad signals that respond to the blast of a locomotive 
whistle. There are machines that can feel the weight of a fly's wings; 
machines that can sense the tremble of the earth, five thousand miles away ; 
machines that respond to the heat of celestial bodies trillions of miles 
distant; machines that can count the very atoms in the lightest of gases. 
On the other hand, we have machines that can lift stupendous masses of 
metal with little apparent effort; that can pick up a loaded coal car and 
pour out its contents ; that can exert a pressure of ten million pounds on 
a test column. 

All the senses of a man have their counterpart in machines except 
possibly those of taste and smell, which are really chemical reactions. As 
I am using the term "machine" in the broadest sense I am not at all sure 
that there may not be certain instilments which will respond to the acidity 
or non-acidity of various solutions or to other chemical reactions that cor- 
respond to taste in the human machine. There is a mechanical con- 
trivance which, if attached to the gas jet, will smell the gas when it has 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 11? 



been blown out by Mr. John Hayseed, and bring into operation a mechan- 
ism that will light the gas again. There are machines that seem almost 
possessed with human intelligence. One clever inventor recently produced 
a mechanism that could remember and forget, although he never put the 
apparatus to any practical application. His purpose was merely to show 
that memory could be reproduced mechanically. This machine, if subjected 
to a certain reaction, would respond to that reaction for an hour, or for a 
day, or for any length of time to which it was adjusted, after which it 
would forget what it was supposed to do, and do the wrong thing, or fail 
to function altogether. More human in character, certainly of more service, 
are the machines which will solve mathematical problems. Not only those 
which will add and substract, multiply and divide, but the complicated 
machines which will solve problems in calculus and higher mathematics — 
the integrator, for instance, which will solve problems that cannot be 
worked out mathematically. The tide recorder in Washington, will per- 
form mathematically calculations that a hundred computors could work out 
in the same time. 

But wonderful as all these machines are, not one of them is endowed 
with real intelligence. Man can produce a machine that will play chess, 
but the machine cannot do its own thinking; it will only do w^hat it has 
been designed to do. It will react to the various conditions to which it may 
be subjected, but it has no will of its own and no power of thought. No 
matter how far we may advance in the development of machinery we shall 
always come up against this barrier — the impossibility of producing 
brains. The most perfect of machines is useless without an intelligent 
operator. In the industries of the future, no matter how far they are ad- 
vanced, operators will be indispensible ; they will be required for their 
directive intelligence rather than their muscular power. Instead, there- 
fore, of bewailing the fact, as men frequently do even in these enlightened 
days, that machines are replacing men, we must look upon the subject 
from a broader point of view and realize that machines are demanding 
men, and that they are elevating man to a higher plane. _ 

One of the sad features of the dreadful war we are now engaged in, 
will be the return from the fighting front of men who have been disabled 
or crippled, so that they will be unfit for the work that they used to per- 
form. This is a subject that is to be taken up at length tomorrow after- 
noon and evening; and while I do not wish to anticipate anything that 
may be said at that time, I wish to bring out a point which has a direct 
bearing upon the subject before us now. It is indeed fortunate that so 
many of our machines have developed to such a point that they do prac- 
tically all of the work and the operator merely directs them. Were such 
not the case, the future of the crippled soldier would be sad indeed ; but 
on his return from the front he will find plenty of opportunity for useful- 
ness as a machine director — I like the word "director" even better than 
operative. No man will be so badly crippled, provided his power of thought 
is not impaired, that he cannot find a useful niche somewhere. In former 
times, the war cripple was a liability upon the community — today the 
machine has turned him into an asset. 

This, then, is the-point I wish to stress. Machines are an aid to man. 



118 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDEK WAB CONDITIONS 

but they are our slaves, and they will not work without our direction. It 
is the duty of the Industrial Engineer to inspire machine directors with 
the dignity of their job; to make them receptive to further development 
of automatic machinery; to show the girl at the spinning mule, for in- 
stance that she is an indispensable element, that she is the directing brain 
of a myriad-armed creature. 

THE CHAIRMAN : In his paper Mr. Ford mentioned the importance 
of standardization in management. We are to hear next something about 
"Standardization in Machine Shop Practice and the Training of Opera- 
tors," by Ellis F. Muther, general sales manager, Gisholt Machine Com- 
pany, Madison, Wisconsin. 

STANDARDIZATION IN MACHINE SHOP PRACTICE 

and 
THE TRAINING OF OPERATORS 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Your secretary first asked me to speak to you a few moments in re- 
gard to Standardization of Machines and Tools. This subject is altogether 
too large to be covered in the short length of time allotted to me, so I have 
taken the liberty of changing the subject to read : ''STANDARDIZATION 
IN MACHINE SHOP PRACTICE AND THE TRAINING OF OPER- 
ATORS," and hope to give you something which will make you feel repaid 
for the time you spend listening to me and looking at what I have to show 
you. 

The many different angles from which this subject may be approached, 
also the many different meanings which can be nut to the word "Standard- 
ization," as applied to the machine shop, make it a subject which has prac- 
tically no limitations. But first, let us get acquainted. 

The Gisholt business came into existance through an effort to stand- 
ardize manufacturing methods and I will talk to you about our own work 
and what our company is doing in standardizing machine shop practice. 
In order that you may better understand what we are doing and have been 
doing for the past 70 years, in our plant at Madison, Wisconsin, and in 
order to have you get acquainted with the Gisholt Machine Company, I 
have had prepared a few slides showing our factory and some of the stand- 
ardized methods used there. 

(Slide No. 1 showing original plant) . In this little building over 30 years 
ago, the first Gisholt Turret Lathe was produced to standardize manu- 
facturing methods and increase production in the Fuller & Johnson Mfg. 
Co. at Madison. 

Mr. J. A. Johnson, our first president, was the principal owner of the 
Fuller & Johnson Mfg. Co., and due to keen business foresight, saw a 
future for a turret lathe for the manufacturing of large pieces of work. 
This new method of manufacturing revolutionized machine shop practice. 

It might interest you to know how the name Gisholt was given to the 
company. Sentiment had a great deal to do with it, as Mr. John A. John- 
son's home in Norway was on this farm located in that rugged country and 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 119 

was called "Gis-holt," which is a compound Norwegian word, meaning 
"Sunny-Woods." 

We have a feeling at Madison, that Gisholt in Norway, the birth-place 
of John A. Johnson, the founder and first president of the Gisholt Machine 
Company, contributed to our organization, not only its name but something 
of its natural, rugged strength — an inheritance which our company has 
always honored and endeavored to transmit in spirit and in service to 
users of Gisholt tools. 

After thoroughly trying out the original machine on his own work, 
Mr. John A. Johnson and his sons, who now own and manage the company 
started the manufacture and sale of these machines, which gradually took 
our representatives throughout the manufacturing world. 

At first it was quite a struggle, as we had to convince the manufac- 
turer that he could produce his work by the new methods as accurately as 
before and at a great saving in cost. As a matter of fact, the work is 
produced with a higher degree of accuracy and more nearly duplicate 
through the turret lathe practice than is possible with the engine lathe 
or the older methods. Thus a standardization in machine shop practice 
was started in our branch of the industry over thirty years ago, and we 
feel that the foundation of our success was this standardization of machine 
shop practice which we gave to our customers. By way of comparison, 
the work was produced for one third the former cost and the quality of the 
work greatly improved. This picture shows you the development of the 
lathe from a very simple machine in 1885, to the big, powerful machine 
which has become so popular throughout the manufacturing world today. 

Enough for an introduction. Now let me show you the plant and we 
will take a hurried walk through the buildings. 

(Show old main works.) This is the plant as it looked about 17 years 
ago, shortly after which time we purchased the American Turret Lathe 
plant at Warren, Pa., (show Warren plant) which was acquired in 1905. 
This plant has shop capacity for 250 men and in it we manufacture our 
small Vertical Boring Mills, (show 30-in. mill) in four sizes, 30 in., 36 in., 
42 in. and 48 in. swing. 

(Show interior at Warren plant.) This shows the Vertical Mill Assem- 
bly Floor. Note how work is standardized. 

(Show Main Work and Office Building.) The next addition to the 
plant was to extend the main works and build the office building which was 
erected in 1911. 

We soon found that the machine shop was getting too large for our 
foundry, so it was extended and the new pattern shop building erected in 
1912. (Show foundry.) The pattern shop and foundry now have capacity 
for approximately 250 men and in the foundry we are melting about 65 
tons of iron daily. (Show interior of foundry.) The building is well 
lighted, as you will see from the interior view and has modern equipment 
thruout, including the most up-to-date equipment for cleaning castings, 

(Show Northern Works.) The next addition to the plant was the 
Northern Works which was acquired in 1915, and has been devoted to the 
manufacture of our larger vertical boring mills (show 72 in. mill) in four 



120 LABOE PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

sizes, 52 in., 60 in., 72 in. and 84 in. swing. (Show Northern assembly- 
floor). These machines are manufactured on the standard basis of large 
lots of a kind at a time as shown by this view of the assembly floor. 

In addition to the vertical mills we have manufactured in the Northern 
plant a large number of simplified lathes, one model of which is shown by 
this picture (show 16 in. simplified lathe) which are largely used abroad 
in England, France and Italy as well as in this country in the most modern 
munition plants. M any of these machines are being operated by women. 

Here is a general view of the Northern Machine Shop floor. 

The last building added to the Gisholt group is the one on the extreme 
right and whereas it is owned by the Northwestern Ordnance Company 
and is operated as a separate corporation, we think we have a right to call 
it a part of the Gisholt plant at Madison as the Northwestern Ordnance 
Company was organized by our company, at the request of the government 
to take on a contract for the manufacture of 4.7 in. guns. From the posi- 
tion occupied by the camera man when this picture was taken, you can see 
about one half of the entire plant. 

Now let's go back as a visitor and make our trip thru the plant. In 
times of peace all visitors are made welcome. The Gisholt latch-string is 
out, but during these strenuous times, no one who cannot show conclusive 
evidence that he has good business reasons for seeing the interior of the 
plant, can get in. But, as these pictures were taken just before Uncle Sam 
entered the World War, there will be no harm in giving you a look at what 
the plant was like a few months ago. It has not changed materially since 
that time, except that today, over 90 per cent in fact practically all of our 
work is for this government or the allied governments or for contractors 
who have contracts with one of these governments. 

Now let's go inside. Here is a general view of the main office. (Show 
engineering department.) And here we see the engineers at work. Here 
I would like to pause a moment and explain how our engineering work has 
been organized and standardized. At the present time we employ about 
1,600 men in the entire plant; floor space covered is about 10 acres, and 
this does not include the Ordnance Company. 

With a factory as large as this in the machine tool business, it is 
necessary to build several types of machine to keep the plant busy, due to 
the varying demand for mechanical products in the machine tool trade. 

For instance, during 1914, just before the war, the machine tool in- 
dustry in America was exceedingly quiet, and I can tell you it took an 
optimist to believe that things were looking up. About the only explana- 
tion I ever heard which truly explained how business was looking up in 
1914 was that our line of business, that is the machine tool industry in 
general, was so flat on its back that it could look no way but up. 

As I have mentioned before, our standard product consists of the 
Gisholt Turret Lathe, Vertical Boring Mill, Tool Grinder, Horizontal Mills, 
Automatic Turret Lathes, Small Tools, Special Tools, the Periodograph, etc. 

I have not said anything about the Periodograph, but if time permits, 
I would like to discuss this apparatus with you as it is taking a large place 
in the manufacturing world and is a big help in standardizing machine 
shop methods. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 121 



As you engineers know, it would not be possible for any one man to 
do justice to such a wide line of machines as the Gisholt line has developed 
to be, and I might say today as it is still growing. 

The business started as I stated before with the Standard Turret 
Lathe, after which the Tool Grinder was added. Here is a machine which 
has done a great deal to help manufacturers standardize their shop practice 
by making it possible to organize in a centrally located tool-room, the grind- 
ing of the tool post tools for lathes, planers, shapers, vertical boring mills, 
screw machines, such as Jones & Lamson, etc. 

This machine is largely used today in Europe and America where a 
man or boy in a centrally located tool room is sharpening the tools for 
many men while they remain at their machines on productive work. In 
this connection I would like to quote to you from a letter I received from 
our representative in Paris. I had asked him why the people in Europe 
were buying so many more of these grinders than the manufacturers in 
America. Notwithstanding that a large number was being purchased in 
America, Europe was buying still more. His answer is not only exceed- 
ingly interesting, but I think is of great importance to us today as it clearly 
illustrates the lesson the Allies have learned, due to the war. His letter 
is as follows: 

"It may interest you to know that machine shop conditions over 
here do not differ greatly from those in the states, except that the 
war has made the people here study their production methods more 
carefully. 

The heavy pressure under which the machine shops of Europe 
are being operated today has brought about the recognition of the 
economy and efficiency obtained by the use of the Gisholt Universal 
Tool Grinder. 

Never before have such efforts been made to utilize skilled 
labor to the very best advantage as there are in Europe today. Hence 
the heavy demand for our Grinder. 

The manufacturers over here realize that they cannot afford to 
let their expensive machines stand idle and stop production while 
their best paid workmen go to sharpen their cutting tools, when 
this work can be done just as well or better by less skilled and 
cheaper labor. 

It is such an easy matter for our customers to chart any of 
their tool post tools that are not shown on our chart that several 
have made separate charts of their own tools which of course helped 
increase their shop production. 

In Genoa, Italy, at the Ansaldo Works, I helped them prepare 
a chart for the special tools they are using, and the scheme has 
proved so profitable that they now have 10 of our Grinders at work." 

This shows the chart used by the boy to guide him in setting his 
machine. In this connection it may be of interest to state that the stand- 
ardizing of their tool grinding has worked out so well in the Ansaldo 
plant, which is a very large one, that they now have 45 of these little 



122 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

machines located throughout their plant, grinding tools for many men. 

In our engineering organization it soon began to show that there 
were several branches of work which should be taken up by individual 
engineers, so we have divided the designing and engineering into six 
different divisions. 

One division looks after the design of turret lathes, tool grinders, and 
horizontal mills. This combination is possible as the demand for horizontal 
mills is very limited and the work on the grinder has been standardized 
to a very great extent. 

Another division takes care of the Vertical Boring Mills, and sim- 
plified lathes. This was made possible due to the fluctuating market for 
these two machines. When the demand for vertical boring mills fell off, 
there came a demand for simplified lathes. 

Another department looks after the automatic turret lathe. 

A separate engineering organization is maintained for the design of 
tools, jigs and fixtures for use in our own shop with which to manu- 
facture our machines. 

The fifth division devotes its entire time to figuring out our customers* 
problems and the design of tools, fixtures, etc. for use on our machines in 
the customer's plant. This branch of the engineering is a division of 
the sales department, in fact is the engineering branch of the sales de- 
partment as they see to it that our customers secure the maximum results 
from our machines. 

Our small tool business including the Gisholt Solid Adjustable Reamer, 
Tool Holder, Adjustable Cutter Boring Bar, Chucks, etc., is really an 
outgrowth of the fifth division, as all of these tools were produced for use 
on our machines in the customer's plant and have proved so valuable and 
the demand is so great for them that a separate department is being pre- 
pared to take care of their production. 

The sixth division devotes its entire time to the engineering problems 
of the Periodograph, a workman's Time Recorder. 

This gives us six different lines of business embodied into one and 
each department with a separate engineering organization and shop. 
In other words, it is possible and not at all improbable, that each of these 
divisions could be and may be expanded into a good sized business by 
itself. Thus the standardizing of our engineering organization has been 
so arranged and is now so complete that sudden heavy demands for one 
class of machines or product will not interfere with the progress of other 
departments, as the size of the factory permits of this expanse, due to each 
department being standardized so that much of its work is routine and can 
be expanded or reduced without seriously effecting any other depart- 
ment. 

I have often told our salesmen that, whereas the Gisholt Machine 
Company is one of the five largest machine tool plants in the states, the 
size is of absolutely no value whatever to our customers, to our salesmen 
or to ourselves unless the size and completeness of the plant gives a de- 
cided advantage to our customers. 

I said we make all of our own chucks. This is because a turret lathe 
is not complete without a chuck. Therefore, before we made our own 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 123 

chucks, it was necessary for us to have chucks on hand when the machines 
were completed or we could not ship the machme. 

Due to the demand on chuck manufacturers, by other customers, 
they could not always give us chucks when we wanted them, so our 
machines had to stand waiting for the chucks. Our work was completed, 
but, due to the volume of business enjoyed by the chuck manufacturers, 
our customer was without the turret lathe; therefore, the necessity of 
making our own chucks was very clear and we have been making chucks 
now for several years. 

Now to show you how the size and completeness of the plant are 
of an advantage to our customers and how the standardization of method 
and equipment have proven of value to our customers, let me relate a little 
incident. 

On February 1, 1917, I remember the day very well, we were enjoy- 
ing a visit from one of our agents in France. You will remember it was 
on that day that the Germans declared unlimited submarine warfare 
which set our French visitor puzzling as to how he would get home. 

While walking through the plant as we have been this afternoon, 
we came to the chuck assembly department. Our French agent asked us 
if we would undertake the manufacture of some of the simpler or standard 
type of chuck, such as are used on engine lathes, and stated that, due to 
the demand for these chucks in Europe, the makers in this country were 
from 6 to 9 months behind delivery promises on some of their orders and 
gave little or no hope as to when the orders would really be filled. 

Now as you increase the size of a factory, you develop the conditions 
which we have all experienced on a crowded street car, the larger the car, 
the more people can be squeezed into it. In other words, "there is always 
room for one more." So believing that we could do a little more, and that 
we should if it was possible, to help the manufacturers abroad secure 
chucks quickly, we undertook to make in addition to our regular line or 
chucks, some of the standard, 3- jawed, geared, scroll chucks. 

Between the 1st of February, 1917, and February 1, 1918, we sold 
and built some 9,000 of these chucks in several sizes, making deliveries on 
time as promised, which of course helped the customer very materially, by 
giving him what he wanted, when he wanted it, which was impossible be- 
fore by any other means. 

There was a time when it was more or less taken for granted that in 
order to use a Turret lathe, it was necessary to make up a set of special 
tools, which would be of no particular value on any other machine, and 
in fact would only apply to the particular piece of work for which the 
tools were made. 

As time went on, we soon found that contained in each of the different 
sets of special tools were certain tools that were duplicated frequently. 
We assembled these parts and today build what is known as a set of 
standard chucking tools, with which a great variety of work can be 
handled due to the adjustment of the tools and cutters. Note how tool 
manufacturing has been standardized and how tools are now made up 
in large lots of a kind at a time. 

This plate shows set of tools laid out above the machine and I have 



124 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



had a reduced size picture of the machine vrith tools assembled on it, placed 
beneath them. To give you engineers an idea of the range of work which 
can be handled with these tools, I will show two slides of drawings of parts 
finished with these tools. _ 

On the main floor just beneath the room in which we manufacture 
our customers' tools, is this room in which we manufacture the great 
variety- of tools, jigs and fixtures for all manner of machines which are 
used in our shop with which we manufacture our product. 

Note that the method of manufacture is on the unit assembly principle, 
the divisions or fences in the back-ground indicate departmental arrange- 
ments in which the different units of the machines are assembled. This 
unit assembly practice as followed by us for a gi'eat many years, is the 
principle which has been expanded by the automobile manufacturers in 
one shape or another from the little firms who assemble only parts pur- 
chased from larger manufacturers, up to our famous Detroit builder, 
Mr. Ford. 

Here is the Thread Milling Machine department. Note as we go 
along that our shop is arranged by the grouping of like machines. At the 
rear of this screw machine department is this stock rack. The steel is 
taken from the cars on a siding alongside this room and stored in these 
racks until wanted by the screw machine department or required to be 
cut up for use in other parts of the shop. 

As a factorv' gi'ows in size you can aiTange your depai'tments to 
greater advantage than with a smaller shop. This shows the polishing 
room to which all the parts that have to be polished are brought. This 
arrangement permits of having machines especially suited for this work; 
also ventilating devices which could not be used if the polishing were done 
in the many different departments where the parts are made. Further, 
the men who are constantly on this work become experts. 

This view will give you an idea of how the small tools are stored, 
each tool being delivered to the workmen on a check. 

There is a big difference between building and manufacture. You 
must have jigs if you standardize your work in manufacture. You en- 
gineers will know that there is a young gold mine invested in the tools. 

That Gisholt machines are used on standard lines of manufacture 
abroad, I want to show you two more pictures. This young lady is the 
Champion Turret Lathe operator in Manchester, England, and at the time 
the picture was taken, held the record for both men and women on the 
production of the famous 3.29 inch high explosive English shell, which are 
sho\^Ti on the floor and in the machine. 

This is the interior of a large English munition plant and as you see 
the picture was taken during the visit of King George. Notice there is 
only one other man in the picture. All of the other workers are women. 
The machines they are handling are kno^m as our 24-inch, a pretty good 
size machine, but evidently veiy easy to operate. 

Your secretary has asked in particular that I discuss the question 
of standardization of equipment and its application to the labor problem, 
which I understand is the dominating theme of your conference. 

The labor problem has always been a big one and will doubtless con- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 125 



tinue to be an exceedingly important one, but we are faced with a peculiar 
situation now, such as was never known before, due to the great number 
of men, not only in our country, but also throughout Europe, who have 
been taken from their regular pursuit and put in the army. 

Whereas the spectacular part of this great war is being acted on the 
battle field, in reality we all know it is a mechanical war and the founda- 
tion of it all is the machine tool. 

You cannot build a battle-ship, a motor truck, a flying machine, a 
tank, an electric motor, a search light, a gun, a shell, or any other of the 
implements of war without the machine tool on which to work. Let us 
go further. You cannot plant grain nor reap the harvest with which to 
feed our armies and the people behind the armies without machine tools 
with which to build the implements. You cannot mine coal, mineral, oil 
or any of the other deposits of nature which are so essential in this war 
without machine tools with which to build the apparatus used in the 
operations. Therefore, I think you will agree with me that the machine 
tool is the foundation on which our success in the war depends and is one 
of the fundamental elements which are absolutely necessary with which 
to prosecute the war to a successful and victorious end. 

Let us turn from the war for a moment, and see how important 
are machine tools and the standard practice of manufacture they have 
made possible during times of peace. Take all that is being used in 
the war and you have only that which we use during times of peace except 
that they have been turned from constructive pursuit to destructive 
pursuit. 

The work of building battle ships is the same as the building of 
merchant ships; the tank is nothing but the large tractor; the armoured 
car is nothing but our pleasure car or our motor trucks rearranged, etc. 
Therefore, the machine tool you will see is just as important in times of 
peace as in times of war. Manufacturing, whether it be the little country 
job shop or the greater industries such as General Electric, Westinghouse 
Electric, are dependent upon labor. Just so long as the human element 
enters so vitality into these problems, just so long will we have to face 
the problem of standardizing machines and of training people to handle 
these machines. 

Now we have come to the section of my talk which I want to devote to 
the training of operators as we believe this is one of the most important 
subjects before the manufacturing world today. The principle involved 
and the methods followed in our school, we think are original with us, 
and still they are entirely in keeping with the methods which the govern- 
ment is following in the officers' training camps as well as at the canton- 
ments throughout this country. 

For ease of decription, I am going to assume that each of you is a 
manufacturer and uses machines such as we manufacture. Several years 
ago the true understanding of just what we were selling came to us, and 
we realized that we had to furnish more than the machine, because when 
any of you men as manufacturers purchase a machine tool, you really do 
not care for the machine itself, that is not what you buy, you are really 
purchasing production, or at least production capacity. 



12 6 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

Production from any machine is and always will be dependent upon 
the human equation; you must have operators who know the machine. 
They must know what work the machine will handle and how to get the 
work out at the lowest possible cost. 

How can you get this highest possible production at the lowest pos- 
sible cost? Only by having men in your own employ who know the 
machine, what it will do, and how to do it. 

For many years we have tried to give this production to our 
customers, by sending our experts into the customer's plant when new 
machines were installed. This helped to a limited extent as you were able 
to begin production much quicker than when you started the machine 
alone. But unfortunately, not many firms had men in their employ who 
could get the maximum production and keep it up. During the visit of 
our expert he instructed the operator how to handle the work and how 
to operate the machine as far as the time and conditions under which 
his visit was made, would permit. 

The foreman and superintendent usually were able to understand the 
principles of Gisholt manufacturing methods better than was the work- 
man on the machine, but many things demand attention in every shop 
and soon the manufacturer found his production largely dependent upon 
the man operating the machine, under which conditions production would 
usually fall off, due to the limited training of the workman. 

All this has been changed, and now each customer may have a v^ic 

expert in his own shop and in his own employ. We are now in a position 
to meet the popular demand in that we train men to get the maximum 
production from our machines. For a while we tried to train our own men 
for our customers employ, but it soon developed to be best for the 
customer to have one of his own men trained for the work instead of 
getting an outsider. 

The advantage of training one of your men instead of taking one of 
our men, is first because your man is familiar with your shop conditions 
and your work and second, because most men will sooner or later move 
back near their home town to work. 

To meet these conditions, we have equipped a school in which we 
train your men in the care, operation, tooling, etc. of Gisholt machines. 
In this school your men are trained in every detail and when they go back 
to your shop they know how to get the maximum production, and you will 
have a Gisholt expert in your own employ. 

During the service course your man will be trained in the details of 
construction of the Gisholt machine, he will know how to adjust and care 
for your machine, so that delays and loss of production will be the excep- 
tion. He will be taught how to grind his cutting tools, and this is most 
important. When he returns to your shop, he will know how to make 
free-hand sketches, how to plan and lay out his work in advance, and how 
to instruct other men in the use of Gisholt machines. 

The training course covers practically everything he will be called 
upon to do with Gisholt machines, such as thread cutting, taper turning, 
drilling, boring, and reaming, etc. He will be taught the value of doing 
things promptly, neatly and accurately and how to do it. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 127 



As mentioned before, we have a separate department in which to 
manufacture tool equipments for our customers. We are in a position to 
relieve them of a great deal of their tooling problems and can usually 
ship the machines fully equipped and ready to go to work. 

While we are making up your tool equipment, your man will be taking 
the service course and can then test your tools on your own work, thus 
becoming thoroughly familiar with Gisholt production methods on your 
own work, even before the machines are installed in your shop, which 
eliminates any delay in getting the machines started when they are 
installed. 

No charge is made for the training; we provide everything required, 
special instructions, equipment, tools, books, etc. The customer simply 
sends his man and we train him. This training is offered under two 
conditions. First, to Gisholt customers, and second we give the training 
to men as individuals who are not employees but who want to take the 
work to improve their position in life. Under these conditions there are 
certain requirements; each applicant must pass before he can enter the 
course. 

One of the men who has been through the course takes the beginner 
for a walk through the plant. Then he is shown the tools which he will 
use during the course. 

There are some 25 tasks which each man has to perform. As a time 
is set for each task and a record is kept on the Periodograph, each man is 
taught the essence of economic production, namely what to do, how to do 
it, why it is done that way, and to do it quickly. After being instructed 
in the method of recording his time, his first task is to dismantle the 
grinder. 

Please note that this is a course of intensified training. Everything 
is figured out ahead of time and no time is lost in guess work. Each 
student has an instructor with him constantly, so that there will be no time 
wasted. After having assembled the grinder, the student is taught how to 
grind his tools, to get the proper make and clearance. This is sufficient 
for the Tool Grinder. 

The student now goes to the Turret Lathe, and dismantles a 21-inch 
machine. He is taught how to scrape in the bearings on an old machine 
and the principle of scraping the V's with a surface plate. Then he must 
assemble, adjust and oil the lathe, after which he must operate it so that 
he becomes familiar with the function of each part. 

He next goes to the 28-inch lathe where he is taught the method of 
taking heavy cuts. Then he must clean up the lathe, after which he will 
set up to manufacture the countershaft friction pulley shown in this 
picture. His work must pass the inspector after which he will operate 
the machine and make a dozen of the pulleys. 

He next goes over to a new motor driven 21-inch lathe where he is 
taught how to bore out the jaws. Next how to do thread cutting, next 
how to do taper turning. Next how to set up for drilling, boring, ream- 
ing and turning; during this work he will operate the machine for a con- 
siderable length of time. 

Now we must disntantle the set-up, clean the tools, and then set the 



128 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

machine up for bar work and manufacture a few cross-head pins, after 
which he must dismantle and clean up his machine and put the tools away. 
You will note, we try to instill in each man the spirit of being clean and 
orderly. 

The student then goes into the school office where he is taught how 
to estimate, and lay out his work in advance, so that he can plan his work 
before it comes to the machine. 

The course of training I have described and shown in these pictures 
thus far, can be completed by a man who has had 3 or 4 years shop ex- 
perience, in about two weeks, all during which the man has been actually 
performing the work. He now starts in as the instructor and takes a new 
man through entire course during which the new man will be the doer 
and the man has been through once, will be the teacher. This prepares 
him for handling other men when he gets back to your shop. 

If time would permit, I could tell you a great deal about the benefits 
obtained through the service course. Suffice to say, the first benefit 
comes to the man himself and this is most important as he is better able 
to handle his work and thereby improves his place in life. The next benefit 
comes to the manufacturer who purchased our machines, as he gets better 
returns from the money invested through greater production. 

But the most important benefit we believe, comes to our nation as a 
whole, as through this method of training men, we can produce two or 
three times as much work with the same number of men as it was pos- 
sible before. 

Thus we hope in these strenuous times when so many men have been 
called to the colors, that it will be possible for the few remaining to make 
up for those who have gone to defend our home and liberty. 

FIFTH SESSION. 

THURSDAY EVENING, March 28, 1918. 

"MEN REMAINING— SECURING THEIR MAXIMUM 

PRODUCTION." 

Mr. H. Thorpe Kessler, of Rosenwald & Weil, Chicago, chairman. 

The meeting was called to order at 7 :30 o'clock. 

THE CHAIRMAN: Al Jolson tells a story about an Irishman and 
a Jew who were discussing the subject of insurance. Pat said to Ike, "Ikey, 
have you taken out any insurance?" Ike said that he had and he asked 
Pat whether he had taken out any insurance. Pat said, "Yes, I have taken 
out a thousand dollars' worth," but Pat says to Ike, "How much insurance 
have you taken out?" Ikey said, "Pat, I took out fifteen thousand dollars' 
worth." "But why fifteen thousand dollars' worth," inquired Pat. "Ah, 
Pat," said Ikey, "your Uncle Samuel knows his business. A fifteen thou- 
sand dollar man don't go in the front trenches." (Laughter.) That story 
has only one bearing on tonight's topic, the men remaining who secure 
their maximum production have as much responsibility, as much a duty 
to perform as those men in khaki and blue who are serving on the other 
side and who are in training in this country. There can be no slackers 
over here among those men who are remaining, and if there are slack- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 129 

ers will you pardon the chairman in the suggestion that management 
itself is to blame. Management should assume the responsibility. If we 
are to get the best production from a (lower, from vegetation of any kind, 
we must surround that flower or that vegetation v/ith the very best condi- 
tions. This is also true of machinery and equipment, even more true of 
men. 

One of the big problems that industry must face, is now facing and 
will continue to face, is the standardizing of conditions for labor. The em- 
ployer is truly the keeper of his employees. A few years ago it was the 
supposition that the relationship between employer and employee was a 
purely economical one. To-day scientific management has brought home 
to us the fact that this relationship is a purely personal and an ethical 
relationship. It seems to me that this topic tonight, the very essence of 
it, conservation of human capital, the incentive which must be offered to 
the men, the planning, the study, the organization, the scheduling of all 
those things which are left to the management, will be discussed by the 
speakers of the evening. The men remaining will be the second line of de- 
fense, which must be kept impregnable. The needs of our boys in khaki and 
in blue must be supplied by those men who remain. Those supplies must 
continue until this and other countries are safe from that atrocious mon- 
ster who has but one policy, rule or ruin. I feel quite sure that the men re- 
maining will not be slackers if we follow the suggestions which are offered 
by the able speakers who will address us this evening. 

"The Relation of the Coal Conservation Movement to the Engineer" is 
the topic of an illustrated talk by Mr. Joseph H. Harrington, who has 
been an advisory engineer and a consulting engineer in the City of Chi- 
cago since 1902. Mr. Harrington is well known throughout this country 
for the work that he has done in combustion and all the allied topics that 
go with it. He is an authority on this work, and he is also connected with 
the Fuel Conservation Committee of Illinois. It gives the chair great 
pleasure this evening to introduce to you Mr. Harrington. 

MR. HARRINGTON: The relation of the fuel conservation move- 
ment to the efficiency engineer is one which appeals particularly to me 
because I have for so many years been classed as an efficiency engineer. 
The word efficiency is a little frayed at the edges perhaps, but at the same 
time the spirit of efficiency is just now coming into its own, and the ne- 
cessity for efficiency is just now penetrating the minds of hundreds of 
thousands of American citizens who were total strangers to its meaning 
before. 

Every cloud has a silver lining, and it is pleasant sometimes to be able 
to turn the cloud inside out and see the other side. If we can extract a 
grain of comfort from the present situation it must be manifest to the effi- 
ciency engineer, because of the fact that his work, his viewpoint and his 
intent are now becoming so much more appreciated by the general public, 
and through the efficiency engineer we hope to secure certain results which 
can be obtained in no other way and which today are vital necessities to 
the American people. 

Now, coming a little closer to the point at issue, the question of fuel. 
McCutcheon has drawn a cartoon which I will show you later showing that 



130 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

all our industries and activities grow from a hod of coal, and that is very 
true. The coal pile and the energy contained therein are one of the prime 
necessities of life, one of the absolute essentials, just as necessary to our 
modern civilization as food and raiment. So that we as efficiency engi- 
neers are vitally concerned both personally, individually and profession- 
ally in this topic. 

Coal forms thirty-five per cent of the total tonnage hauled by the 
American railroads, and in the East where the industries are thickest it 
has mounted as high as forty-three per cent. It is the largest commodity 
in point of tonnage of any carried by the railroads in the United States. 
When you consider that it takes thirty days on the average for a car to 
make the round trip from the mine to the point of destination and back to 
the mine, you can conceive of the enormous equipment necessary to handle 
the coal consumed in America. Last year the actual coal production was 
six hundred and forty millions of tons. If we had not had the unusual 
weather and transportation conditions it is more than likely than six hun- 
dred and seventy-five millions of tons would have been mined and trans- 
ported. We fell short some thirty-five millions of tons. Part of that came 
from industry, and part of it came from the individual. Now unless in- 
dustry is going to be curtailed again one of two things is necessary. We 
are either going to mine sufficient coal for our requirements or we are 
going to use less coal in our industry. The Bureau of Mines is on record 
as saying that reasonable efficiency will save this country ten per cent of 
its coal consumed. Privately they will put that figure at a slightly higher 
point. I think that ten per cent, however, is an absolutely conservative 
figure. Unfortunately, last year our production was increased, but those 
of you who burned coal last year will suspect that some of that increase 
was not coal, it was slate and bone, and the fuel administration recogniz- 
ing that fact is engaged in an active campaign to prevent its recurrence. 

A short time ago Dr. Garfield published his plans by nationwide or- 
ganization of inspectors, these inspectors to visit the various mines to 
prevent the shipment of this inferior coal. It is a pity that the country 
should be deprived of this essential when we have in store almost unlim- 
ited quantities of it. That is a transportation problem. The miners of 
Illinois work on an average of only two hundred days per year out of a 
possible three hundred. If they could work three hundred days a year they 
would not have to get as much per day to come out at the same place. The 
industry would be stabilized, and everyone would be more content. Conse- 
quently one of the activities of the administration is to induce everyone, 
large and small consumers alike, to purchase their coal now. Storage of 
coal — I am referring now particularly to the high volatile coals of the West, 
particularly again to the coals of Illinois — these coals can be stored. The 
rules for storage are simple, and when observed there is absolutely no 
danger of spontaneous combustion. Consequently knowing that coal can be 
stored we urge everybody to put in their winter supply of coal at once. 
That will remove just that much from the service next winter. It will 
serve to keep the mines busy during the otherwise inactive season, and 
those who have to buy coal in small quantities from day to day or week 
to week, can more likely be supplied by the reduced facilities of the rail- 
roads during the inclement weather of next winter. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 131 



The administration hopes by various conservation activities to save 
a very considerable amount of coal, twelve million tons in the homes of 
the nation, forty million tons in the locomotives and steampower plants, 
six million tons by substituting wood and other fuel for coal, three and 
a half million by the consolidation of activities, such as combining two ice 
plants in one town, or letting one run full time at maximum capacity and 
shutting down the other one ; a half million tons by reduction of unneces- 
sary advertising, illuminating signs ; a million tons by this daylight saving 
which is going to make us all get up a little earlier in the morning; six 
million tons by the natural reduction in certain activities which have been 
produced by the war situation, a million and a half on the street railways 
by the cutting out of unnecessary stops, and seventy million tons by a 
thousand and one other minor ways. 

About twenty-five to thirty per cent of all the coal burned in the United 
States is burned in the domestic furnace, and you can believe me when I 
tell you that that is the toughest problem from an efficiency standpoint that 
I ever tackled. How the good housewife or the man of the house is going 
to practice combustion efficiency between the time he comes down in the 
morning and the time he leaves for the train is some real problem. The 
conditions are such that it is almost impossible to save any coal whatso- 
ever, and yet it would certainly surprise you to know to what an extent 
means have been worked out for solving that very problem. 

I promised that I would not go into technical details tonight. I am 
going to keep that promise even though it is at the cost of some self-re- 
straint, because it is certainly a hobby of mine, but I am not going to bore 
you with technical details. But the food administration, as you know, has 
reached the general public through the eye, through the ear and in every 
conceivable way by posters, advertising signs, four minute speakers and 
the like. The fuel campaign is somewhat similar. We are getting up a 
series of posters, a few of which I have reproduced in the form of slides 
and which I have brought over here for your interest. We are arranging 
to cover the entire country. I speak now particularly of Illinois because 
I happen to be more intimately acquainted with our work here. We are 
organizing the State on a County basis. Every County has a county chair- 
man, and he has that smaller organization through which he works. These 
county chairmen are supplied with the data, the literature as it comes from 
Washington or as it is prepared in our home office. Professor Breckinridge 
of the administration at Washington has prepared a little booklet on the 
conservation of fuel which is an outline of a series of lectures which it is 
proposed to place in the hands of speakers all over the country for dissemi- 
nation. We are trying to reach the homes, the private homes, with infor- 
mation as to how coal can be burned. You have all heard, of course, a great 
deal about the technical side of fuel economy in the larger power plants. 
The railroads have done an enormous amount of work. I think I can re- 
member that figure approximately. When the campaign for smokeless 
combustion reached the railroads of Chicago they appointed some forty 
inspectors at a cost to the associated railroads of sixty-five thousand dollars 
per year. The result of that effort was the saving inside the city limits of 



132 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



Chicago alone of six hundred thousand tons of coal. It merely shows what 
can be done if we put our shoulder to the wheel and all push together. 

It is my object to-night primarily to show you briefly the necessity 
for the co-operative effort. Now, gentlemen, the situation is even more 
serious than I have pictured it. The word has recently come from Wash- 
ington that only two-thirds of your normal anthracite requirements will 
be allowed you for household purposes. There will be no Pocahontas come 
West whatsoever. That means that we have got to use Illinois coal in the 
house furnaces of the West. What that means when you have a small 
fire-box or hot air furnace you will appreciate after you have tried it. It 
is a question what we are going to do in the industries. The estimated re- 
quirement in this country for the next year by those most competent to 
state that figure is eight hundred millions of tons. That you should com- 
pare with the actual production of last year of six hundred and forty mil- 
lions of tons. It is very unlikely that production will reach that figure, 
and there is just exactly one way in which we can keep the wheels turning 
with the amount of coal that will be mined, and that is by cutting down 
on the coal that we use for our required production. That is efficiency. 
And that is a problem of sufficient moment to engage the attention of 
every man in the United States, every woman who has a house, and every 
high-school boy or child who attends a fuiTiace. Twenty-five or thirty per 
cent, as I said, of the total coal is burned in the domestic furnace, and all 
I can say without making this matter unduly long is that the administra- 
tion appreciates the importance of such an organization as your own under- 
standing this situation, knowing full well that if you turn your attention to 
it that great good will come therefrom. We ask you with a full apprecia- 
tion of the full seriousness of the situation to do what you can both directly 
and indirectly in disseminating this information, supplying to those who do 
not have it, printing it in your publications, referring to it in your meet- 
ings, so that wherever you may come in contact with others they will carry 
away with them some idea of the seriousness of the situation and some ray 
of hope that by intensive co-operation we can get through another winter 
without any serious trouble and with a united front for the great deeds 
and the glorious work which the boys across are now doing. 

(Mr. Harrington then showed and explained some slides.) 

THE CHAIRMAN: This address by Mr. Harrington has certainly 
been highly instructive and interesting. It should receive the widest spread 
publicity. The next speaker on the program is Mr. Irving A. Bemdt. He 
needs no introduction because you all know him. He has addressed us be- 
fore. 

MR. BERNDT : Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen : The program 
is full this evening and the time is short, so I will spend very little time in- 
troducing my paper. However, there is just one thing I would like to say, 
and that is that at a conference like this we have very little time for de- 
tails. Quoting Mr. Emerson, if he will allow me to, in his talk yesterday 
his conclusion is that after all methods are secondary to principles, and I 
warn you that this paper is nothing more than a paper of propaganda, 
which, however, I think has been the key-note of most of the papers and 
will be the key-note of this entire conference. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 133 

"MAXIMUM PRODUCTION FROM UNDRAFTED LABOR," 
By IRVING A. BERNDT, MANAGER BETTERMENT DEPARTMENTS 

JOSEPH T. RYERSON & SON. 

Out of the war, which is bringing up grave problems, immediate emer- 
>rencies and abnormal conditions, to each and every man in every walk of 
life comes that perplexing* question — how can I do my bit? How can I 
serve our country in its present need ? 

I believe that the loyalty and patriotism of our people even to a man 
can hardly be questioned. Each one is ready, even anxious to serve. But 
the problem is upon us suddenly and we are forced to make decisions with 
very little previous preparation. 

Speed is a necessary adjunct to a successful military programme and 
our men have been called upon to say quickly whether they will go and fight 
or remain and work. It is not natural for a peace loving people to imme- 
diately adjust itself to a war programme without these problems, particu- 
larly because our country has never been organized essentially for war. 
Because of the very peace, democracy and freedom of action and speech 
which we love and thank God for and for which our boys are even now 
fighting in France, it is becoming more difficult for each one of us to find 
his right place in the present emergency. 

I am not regretful of this condition. It is right no matter what prob- 
lems it brings before us. It is a condition justified by the hundreds of 
years of progress and peaceful development which our country has behind 
it, and I am optimistic as to its solution. We will all soon find our best work 
and will do it well. We will all soon be in that fortunate position in 
which every true advocate of efficiency principles believes, the right place 
for the right man, and when that time arrives and each man is trained and 
working to his maximum capacity, we will justify the democracy and free- 
dom under which we live with an efficiency which neithor ruthless mili- 
tary government nor autocratic rule can oppose successfully and our boys 
will soon come "marching home" victorious. 

This condition has thrown our industrial workers into three broad 
groups. 

A — Those in fighting service. 

B — Those working on war requirements. 

C — Those carrying on normal industrial activities. 

First, there are those who have enlisted or who have been selected by 
our government to serve in one or the other of the fighting services. The 
justification of this service certainly cannot be questioned. Who is there 
among us who will say that they should not go? Who among us does not 
envy them the glorious privilecre of fighting or even dying for our country? 
Who among us does not regret that he too cannot go at onco into this same 
service and who are unwilling to shoulder the burden caused by their ab- 
sence? Certainly no one in our ranks. 

No matter what problems this brings us, no matter what it costs in 
extra effort on our part, no matter what heart pangs we suffer in their per- 
sonal loss, we must stand by and cheer them in leaving for this great pa- 



134 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

triotic and honorable service. They must not be deterred ; let us glory in 
them. 

Second, is that group which is composed of those who, while not actu- 
ally in the fighting service, are entering government service either directly 
or indirectly in the ranks of industrial workers actively engaged in the pro- 
duction of war supplies and equipment. 

Our Government has since the beginning of the war come face to face 
with a production and industrial problem second to none other existing at 
present or any other in historJ^ It has been compelled to establish stand- 
ards and specifications for millions of uniforms, munition and war sup- 
plies; it has been forced to plan and arrange for the production of these 
great volumes of commodities and it has been compelled to arrange for. 
plan and provide equipment of all kinds, in great numbers and with im- 
mense capacities to transfer, transport and ship these large tonnages and 
great bulks of material. To do this it has been necessary to draw upon our 
best men in industrial ranks for this direct service. 

The large production programme of the War Department has brought 
great pressure to bear on the producers of munition, guns and all war sup- 
plies and those already existing have been required to double and triple and 
in fact multiply many times their productivity. Many new producing or- 
ganizations have been developed to facilitate that programme and all of 
this great intensive activity has taken from the ranks of industrial workers 
hundreds of thousands of men. 

With all of these war activities the counutry still must prosper indus- 
trially. General lines of commercial and industrial activity must continue 
on a normal basis and must even be increeased to supply not only our own 
demands but those of our allies. Our third group is devoting itself to 
these. 

No doubt the question repeatedly presents itself to many in the third 
group as to whether or not each one is doing his duty and no doubt many 
have found it difficult to answer satisfactorily to themselves, because in 
each American heart there is a cry for opportunity to directly, aggres- 
sively and openly show patriotism and willingness to work in the defense 
of those principles of right and justice which our forefathers gave us. 

Our sense of responsibility and our conscientious appreciation of the 
need for combined and united action in order to win this war urges each 
one to long for an opportunity to take an active part in it. 

This must be recognized and respected among this third group and 
while they are compelled to patiently await their turn at home, carrying 
the normal responsibilities of homes, dependents, and industrial or com- 
mercial duties, while in their blood stirs the desire to do or die, every pos- 
sible inspiration must be given them to reconcile themselves to this con- 
dition and all possible steps should be taken to make their work most ef- 
fective. As much consideration should be given them as those in the first 
and second class and no conditions should be permitted which would tend to 
weaken their morale or make their personal problem more difficult. 

To repeat our classification briefly, we find our industrial workers di- 
vided into three Groups: 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 135 

(A) — Those in fighting service. 

(B) — Those working on war requirements. 

(C) — Those carrying on normal industrial activities^^ 

Considering these groups from the point of numbers probably the 
following analyses will be formed based on the immediate situation. It is 
not only possible but highly probable that before long a round 2,000,000 
of men will have joined our actual military and naval service. This num- 
ber represents the first group. 

Government authorities advise us variously that it takes from 4 to 6 
men in industry to keep one in the service. Considering an average of five 
for this work, we find 10,000,000 men work on war production. This repre- 
sents our second group. 

Deducting this total of 12,000,000 from the approximately 30,000,000 
workers normally engaged, we have remaining in our third group but 
18,000,000. 

The men in the first class are already doing their best. We cannot 
hope to influence their effectiveness, but we can and must stand back of 
them a solid mass and we can and must organize our productive groups in 
the second and third classes so that they will always keep pace with the re- 
quirements of our fighting men and assure them at all times that our ef- 
forts are to be co-ordinated and united. We must also actively and vigor- 
ously prepare for further drains on our ranks of industrial workers for 
this fighting service by developing an ever increasing efficiency of those at 
work, so that as demands are made on industry, she will be ready and will- 
ing to unselfishly continue to give up her best and youngest men and still 
keep pace with requirements at home. 

The second group must be educated and inspired to a complete appre- 
ciation of the possibility of the valuable service they can and are rendering 
in winning this war and must be coached and trained to a higher efficiency 
and greater productivity in the actual production of war supplies. 

. The third group, that army of 18,000,000 men left to carry the burden 
formerly carried by 30,000,000 for although some of our industrial activi- 
ties have temporarily ceased, demands have increased in other directions 
and particularly because we now must help in supplying our allies with 
necessities, that third group, must first be reconciled to their position, sec- 
ond, must be brought to an appreciation of the serious necessity of an ever 
increasing productivity and finally must be assisted and trained for this 
greater efficiency. 

And in all this great and necessary work, in the solution of this prob- 
lem of human relationships, who is there who can be more useful, more ef- 
fective, or more definitely influential than the industrial engineer? 

It might be well to stop here for a moment to consider what is meant 
by an industrial engineer. This profession is so new that there is as yet no 
standard definition acceptable to all and we are privileged to define it in 
many ways. Without hope of developing a definition entirely satisfactory 
I will ofl'er one which may serve the present purpose. 

In my mind the industrial engineer is an individual who by training, 
experience, education ^nd personal attributes is qualified to study the prob- 



136 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

lem of organization, personnel, equipment, buildings and all features of 
management control in industrial or commercial organizations, can analyze 
present conditions, apply remedies where necessary, improvements when 
possible and finally establish standards which are acceptable, practical and 
permanent. This definition necessarily brief, cannot attempt to cover in 
any detail the entire functions, but offers only a broad interpretation. 

I wish to say to you men here present who by virtue of your pres- 
ence are at least interested if not actively engaged in industrial engineer- 
ing, that there never has been such an opportunity for the ideals of scien- 
tific management, the principles of efficiency and the theories and practices 
of industrial engineering to prove their worth. 

Never before has their need been so emphatic as at the present mo- 
ment. At no time has the cause been so worthy. 

I also wish to say that in my estimation if we do not prove our case 
during these times we never will. It is now or never. If our principles and 
ideals are correct the nresent situation must justify us in our belief pro- 
vided we stand back of them a solid mass firm and steadfast in this belief 
and confident of the outcome. 

To Throve that the industrial enofineer and manager is above all others 
qualified to cope with this problem of labor conservation does not seem 
difficult. 

Consider for an instant our ideals. For years our cry has been 
elimination of waste, reduction of waste effort, conservation of man power 
and now those words save, conserve, produce and economize which were 
during those times the hobby of a few, the self -assumed nroblem and re- 
sponsibility of a small group, are now the slogan of a nation, the motto in 
every household and the creed of each man and woman. Are we not well 
drilled and well equipped in our ideals? 

The rjrincinles of efficiency and the nractices of industrial engineering 
have taught us long before the present emergency that one of our biggest 
problems is the human factor and we have been studying, experimenting 
and anplying solutions. 

Without attemnting to detail all the methods of approaching and in- 
fluencing this problem which we as a srroup are car»able of applying and 
with which you are no doubt familiar, is it not true that we can do a large 
work in developing the productivity of those industrial workers remaining 
and may even, if our work is extensive and intensive enouorh, be able to re- 
nlace those leaving entirely by standardized methods, well planned opera- 
tions, conservation of all waste effort, highly improved conditions and 
equipment, careful labor selection, comprehensive labor education, intelli- 
gent labor control, etc., etc. 

This is a real life size job for you and for me and if any one is worry- 
ing or impatient because he has not yet been called let him think of this a 
moment and take hold with a realization and satisfaction that this work is 
not only valuable and worthy but absolutely necessary for the welfare of 
this country and the winning of the war. 

Let us consider for a moment the more intimate and detailed factors 
and problems which the question of labor conservation brings before us 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 137 

and then see what solution the industrial engineer offers and is capable of 
applying. 

The first problem is that of careful selection and proper placement of 
workers. At present this is ever becoming more and more important be- 
cause since our best men physically are being taken those remaining must 
be properly placed and each one carefully selected for the work he is to do. 
Also older men must be recalled into active service and properly placed. 

The physical examinations during the draft are by all odds far more 
rigid than the most intensive examinations any employer uses in select- 
ing workmen. This means that for the army at least our best physical 
workers are being used. 

Washington is continually calling for our best skill and brains to be 
given up to war production. Does this not mean an immense readjust- 
ment in the placement of men? 

Here the industrial engineer can and must intensively apply those 
remedies which are so successful in so many cases and are not to be con- 
sidered experiments any longer. 

The old hire and fire method must be entirely wiped away. The fore- 
man already burdened with more responsibilities than he can efficiently 
handle, must no longer be permitted or be expected to handle this function ; 
unless he has had an opportunity to study each job and understand its 
requirements in the way of man power and ability, and then has time to 
carefully consider each applicant and also has ability to analyze his quali- 
fication, how can he be expected to place men well. It is not possible for 
the foreman under average conditions to give these problems their proper 
attention. 

We must have more centralized employment departments concentrat- 
ing on this problem, applying practical character analyses plans and mak- 
ing as scientific and practical an analysis as possible each man for each 
job. These departments must collect and have available standard require- 
ments for each job. 

We should have complete co-operation among such employment de- 
partments in each community and in fact in the state and if possible a sys- 
tem of transfer should be developed and provided for, so that the men 
could be shifted intelligently from one plant to another where he can do 
work for which he is best fitted. 

A paper can be written alone on this subject of careful selection and 
centralized employment and these factors can be justified not only from 
the necessity of the present emergency but from the economical and moral 
side as well, but I cannot expect to more than urge here that this is a real 
problem and that industrial management does offer real practical and tan- 
gible solution. 

After the men have been properly selected and intelligently placed, we 
next come to the problem of educating, training and coaching them, in- 
spiring them, supervising them and assisting them to a higher produc- 
tivity and a greater efficiency with an elimination of waste ofTort. onorg.\' 
and time. It seems hardly necessary for me to onii)hasize the point thai 
industrial engineering does and can cover these featui-os in its solutions. 
Have not all these que'stions been doiinitely studied, analyzed and thor- 



138 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

oughly investigated under the subject of organization in industrial engi- 
neering? Surely all of us are familiar in some way or another with the 
success of functionalizing organizations and foremen and just what this 
alone can do to solve this problem. 

Well functionalized organizations and particular functional supervi- 
sion, provides for the necessary attention to each of the detailed labor 
problems which under this plan is supplied in each case by an individual 
specialist capable and trained to do that work especially well. 

Then, too, in this connection, when I even suggest time and motion 
study as a factor I open up another field which can only be touched upon 
here. Here we have a mechanism, definitely originated and initiated under 
scientific management, positively and almost solely identified with indus- 
trial engineering. What purpose does it serve? 

With it we can study the job to be done, the work to be performed and 
the equipment and methods which are to be used. As a result of analyses 
of such information collected we can improve the methods and condi- 
tions of work as well as the equipinent and tools used, so that the work can 
be done more efficiently and with less waste effort and fatigue to the work- 
men. 

As a result of this development standards of manufacture can be set 
up which dovetail into every other factor. They can be used by the em- 
ployment department to learn the job requirements; they can be used by 
the functionalized organization to train and educate the workmen both 
for their present work and for advanced positions. They can be used to 
teach new men brought into the organization to take the place of those 
drafted. They can be used to more carefully plan and schedule processes. 
They can be used as a basis for a more equitable wage payment to work- 
ers. They can be used as an incentive for the worker to attain this justi- 
fied greater efficiency. Has not industrial engineering made a real con- 
tribution in this one principle and mechanism alone, and is there any 
other plan offered or advocated or in use which will do so much toward 
solving this problem? 

If there is it has not come to my attention and we are certainly all 
anxious to learn of it. 

In order that each worker be fairly judged and properly and intelli- 
gently considered for promotion or advancement, analytical operation and 
production costs must be recorded and used. Industrial Engineering has 
from the beginning advocated this and is now prepared with well thrashed 
out principles and practical methods to develop these methods and records. 

Consider for a moment the question of mechanical efficiency and 
standardization. A field all in itself being specialized upon by some of our 
best known and most able industrial engineers. Here thru research, time 
and motion study and investigation, plus design and invention an enormous 
influence can be wielded to replace drafted labor and increase the produc- 
tion of the undrafted. Industrial Engineering offers this also. 

No true Industrial Engineer is not a safety propagandist and here 
too a field of activity is opened enormous in itself. Between thirty and 
forty thousand industrial workers are killed annually and a quarter of a 
million are injured. We must and can reduce these figures. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 139 

I have only mentioned the important factors which are considered 
under industrial engineering and which factors can and do influence the 
conservation of labor and the increase of production of the undrafted 
men. 

That other possible solution of replacing men by the use of women 
workers is a topic all by itself but I do not wish to leave my subject without 
some mention of the posible effectiveness of industrial engineering on this 
movement. 

This will throw great numbers of untrained, unskilled workers into 
industry, necessarily less physically able, much more sensitive to fatigue, 
much more in need of training and education, much more in need of me- 
chanical assistance and bringing into industrial management all sorts of 
new problems of supervision, handling and discipline, working conditions, 
etc. 

They must be paid on a basis equal with men, but how can this be done 
unless standards of production are properly set up ? 

Their proper placement is very important. They cannot be used for 
all work, but how will we be sure of which unless analyses of the require- 
ments of the jobs are made. True, of course, that in some work it is self 
evident that they can be used, but there may be scores of industries and 
thousands of operations which they can perform which only a scientific 
analysis and study will disclose. 

Does not all the work of the Industrial Engineer apply here emphatic- 
ally? Surely the practices and mechanism he offers will be invaluable in 
this connection as nothing else can. 

And if the foregoing has interested or, what is more to be desired, 
really influenced you, a justifiable question is what can be done now? What 
immediate steps can be taken? 

My answer is that we must advocate, advertise, apply, promulgate, 
preach, promote, and practice both intensively and extensively the ideals 
of scientific management, the principles of efficiency and the theories and 
practices of industrial engineering. 

There must be a great broadening of the vision of our industrial man- 
agers, employers and all manufacturers. Surely this problem must be 
solved by the application of those principles of right management and 
waste effort elimination which have in so many individual cases been suc- 
cessfully applied, rather than an unintelligent competition for the services 
of the remaining workers, resulting in more serious problems of labor re- 
lationships and compensation, or the limitation of production and conse- 
quent prolongation of the war in Europe and abnormally high prices at 
home. 

The solution is the immediate extensive and intensive study of efficient 
management, the detailed analysis of existing conditions and the intelli- 
gent application of best principles and practices in each individual organi- 
zation. But this must be done quickly. 

It is a fact that to bring the average organization up to an acce])tal)le 
efficiency it has taken variously from two to ton years. We cei'tainly can- 
not even wait the minimum period. Therefore, there must be a more gen- 
eral education of every oiie concerned to secure more immediate results. 



140 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

A wider propaganda must be carried on, a more intensive campaign pro- 
moted. 

One of the most important reasons for the long time which it takes to 
introduce, develop and complete an individual reorganization and installa- 
tion of scientific management is the fact that on every side the human fac- 
tor must be considered. 

In the first place, the advocate of efficiency and management who is 
consulted and probably permitted to apply his work must first educate and 
inspire the management and administrative officers of the concern in- 
volved. From then on he is put on the defensive, regardless of his position 
in the organization, not only as regards his particular application, but 
what is most important and seems less necessary, as regards the principles 
involved themselves. 

If once and for all the management were sold, and could be kept sold, 
on the principles, the actual work of application would be greatly facili- 
tated. 

In addition to this, he must deal with the human factor in every step 
he takes, represented by the individual worker whose daily work is affected 
by the changes he proposes. These men, from the laborer to the shop super- 
intendent, must each one be educated, inspired and be given sufficient in- 
centive to co-operate and help him actually apply his solutions, and, what 
is most important, he must keep coming back to these individuals, each 
time defending his positions and the ideals and principles he represents, 
and must take time to continue their education and keep up their enthusi- 
asm by one means or another. 

What really takes the time, therefore, is the continual and current 
education of the great majority of men in the organization, including not 
only the workers, but the management and executive officers as well. 

If it were not necessary to do this, and if the industrial engineer com- 
ing into an organization found that he was not continually put on the de- 
fensive by the workers, but rather found workers who were interested in 
their own problems and their solution, and a management entirely con- 
vinced as to the accuracy and justification of efficient and scientific man- 
agement, ask any engineer of experience, and I wager he will agree with 
me that the necessary time to bring this work to an acceptable basis will 
be cut 70 or 80 per cent. 

I do not expect or believe that such a condition can be immediately 
consummated, nor do I think it possible to bring up all organizations to 
their highest efficiency in time to make them all most effective in the pres- 
ent emergency. I do feel, however, that much more can be done, and 
greater strides can be made, than are being made under the present pro- 
gram. 

Keeping in mind, therefore, that the big problem is the education and 
inspiration of all individuals interested in industry, regardless of how men- 
ial or important their relation is, I suggest that this is the problem which 
must be and can be more intensively considered. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 141 

FOUR CONCRETE SUGGESTIONS. 

To this end I believe there must be greater activity in every direction, 
and suggest the following possibilities : 

1. All trade organizations already existing should concentrate on a 
study of the principles of efficiency, using the considerable literature al- 
ready available and securing the best intelligence included among their own 
ranks on this subject. Where in a given trade no such organizations exist, 
this purpose alone would be a real reason for their orjranization. The more 
successful and most intelligent industrial leaders in each group must come 
to the front and heln to educate their associates, realizing that the present 
is a time for utmost co-operation. 

2. I believe that every influence should be brought to bear which 
will tend to continue the existence of all the great educational institutions 
which are now dealing with this subiect so that thev will not only con- 
tinue to do all they have been doinc: in educating a future generation of 
managers, but also to do a more intensive and also extensive work in 
educating the workers and the present executive thru night courses, read- 
ing courses, etc. Such institutions as are capable, but have not yet taken 
up this work, should be influenced toward doing it. 

3. Organizations of all kinds, including eflficiency societies, executive 
clubs, chambers of commerce, labor orsranizations and the like should 
concentrate on this problem and not only reach out in their own locali- 
ties to educate the uninitiated worker or manager, but should urge new 
organizations like their own in other communities and co-operate with 
them after they have been organized. Here again the leaders must take 
upon their shoulders the larerer resnonsibility and give freely to their 
neighbors of their time and knowledge on this subject. 

4. All of the above should not only be advocated but rigidly enforced 
and thoroughly encouraged and facilitated by state and national govern- 
ments. Such commissions, boards or bureaus as are necessary should be 
organized to promote this work in each locality, each industry and among 
all groups, not overlooking that most important and most numerous group 
— the workers. 

The Treasury Department of the United States ofl'ers in its Thrift 
Stamp plan a possibility for saving nickles, dimes and quarters. Why 
should we not have a campaign for saving minutes, hours, days, in pro- 
duction and foot pounds of manual labor and effort. 

We have a food conservation campaign, a food conservation board and 
director. We have a fuel conservation campaign and a board and direc- 
tor, why not a popular labor conservation campaign and a labor conserva- 
tion director and board. 

We must popularize our movement. Time will win this war we are 
told, and if this is so, it means the time in which we do things. This means 
nothing more nor less than labor saving and increased production. 

We have not sufficient time to teach our theories but the thought can 
be inspired. We have not time to popularize our technic, but we can popu- 
larize our ideals. 

In all the above thqse who have up to this time been pioneers in the 
movement should realize that this is the time to set aside all idea of per- 



142 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

sonal gain, all idea of intense competition, and all feelings of personal 
prejudice, and give freely to this cause as much of their time as possible, 
and all of the knowledge that they have gained thru their experiences. 

I am not advocating in this that any of this educational propaganda 
should have to do with detailed methods or individual solutions or applica- 
tions. This would hardly be practical, nor would it be fair to those who 
have, thru their own individual effort, taken distinct steps ahead in their 
particular line of endeavor. In all cases I think it must take up the 
broad principles involved, teaching their righteousness, inspiring their use, 
and after this leaving the intensive application to each individual. 

Summarizing, I am advocating the extensive education of large groups 
in the value of industrial efficiency, taking this responsibility away from 
the individual industrial engineer, so that he will no longer be on the 
defensive, but can apply himself wholly and solely to the application of these 
principles, having at all times the complete co-operation of every individual 
concerned, from worker to manager. 

This propaganda, this broad educational work is not only a possible 
line of activity for each one of us interested but to my mind an absolute 
duty. 

Thru such organizations as this and others like the Society of 
Industrial Engineers and the Western Efficiency Society we must move 
quickly and decisively. Recognition must be gained for our principles, 
our practices and our profession. 

Scientific management, industrial engineering, efficiency or whatever 
you have a mind to call it has not been universally accepted I hardly need 
tell you, although it has been successful in so many cases that it can no 
longer be considered an experiment. You are all familiar with the big 
advance and many successful installations during the last several years. 
Even the government departments have not in all cases considered it 
worthy of application and use in their work. This opens a big oppor- 
tunity for real educational work which is as broad as you make it and is 
all inclusive. 

Each one has an opportunity to influence all of these results. We 
must make up for our loss of man power by most highly standardized, and 
most highly specialized efficient methods of production. If, therefore, in 
our profession as industrial engineers we are capable of doing this work 
well it is our patriotic duty to do so and to teach all otheiis how they can 
do likewise. 

England has since the emergencies brought about by the war, dis- 
covered its great inefficiencies in production and is actively engaged in 
applying remedies. Comparisons recently made on many products show 
that she is forging ahead of us. Why should we wait for any further 
emergencies. Let us do it now. 

We are being told a great deal about the "War after the War" and 
are advised it will be one for industrial supremacy among all nations. 
Now is the time to prepare for this conflict. Efficiency principles and 
scientific management originated in this country. We are told that 
European countries including both our allies and enemies are studying 
them intensively and applying them extensively. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 143 

Shall history repeat itself and like the European developments of our 
original inventions, the submarine, the machine gun and the aeroplane, 
will we permit some one else to develop our discoveries in this direction 
before we do so and even use them against us? If this is not to happen 
we must do more than concentrate on our own problems. 

Each one who has learned and applied the principles of efficiency must 
tell his neighbor and in every possible way spread these teachings as faith- 
fully and consistenly as was the Gospel of Christianity. This is therefore 
not only a duty in the service of our country during the present emergency 
but is more far reaching and will effect the permancy of our industrial 
status after we have won it. 

And in all this certain things are required among our own ranks. 
There must be a complete co-operation. We must be united among our- 
selves, and no matter how many differences of opinion exist among us as 
to details, the main theory and principles must never be lost. Rivalry 
must be friendly, competition must be co-operative. 

With this great task ahead of us, there certainly can be no doubt in 
our minds as to our duty and possible service even though we have not, 
either because of absence of opportunity or thru force of circumstances, 
been privileged to join the fighting ranks or direct war organiza- 
tion of our country. A big job is before us which we can attack with a 
justification in its righteousness, an assurance of its utmost necessity and 
complete pride in its performance. 

Although we do not hear the thunder of the cannons or see the smoke 
of powder over here, as our noble boys are doing over there, we can still 
throw ourselves into our work if we are alive to all of its possibilities 
realizing that we too are fighting many a real battle at home and making 
distinct progress for Uncle Sam. 

Absolutely nothing will prevent our United States from winning this 
war, or from coming into its own industrially and commercially after the 
war. Can the industrial engineer help? I say yes, in a thousand ways. 
Will he help? I again say yes with the realization that they are to a man 
back of me in that reply. 

THE CHAIRMAN: Directly pertinent to the subject of Mr. Berndt's 
paper, he pointed out very definitely that there is no division of responsi- 
bility and duty of the men remaining and the men in more active service. 
At this juncture we are going to change our program just a trifle and call 
on Col. A. D. Kniskern. I take very great pleasure in presenting to you 
Col. Kniskern, who will address you on the subject of "Cutting Out Red 
Tape." 

"CUTTING OUT RED TAPE." 
Colonel A. D. Kniskern. 

I have been asked to talk to you to-night on the subject, "Cutting Out 
Rep Tape." The "rep tape" referred to is, presumably, so-called, "Gov- 
ernment Red Tape," 

After spending, in ancient days, four long, and what then seemed 
extremely hard, years at the United States Military Academy at West 



144 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS ^_ 

Point I was assigned to my first station as a Second Lieutenant of In- 
fantry, 140 miles by stage from the railroad in Montana. There I spent 
the first winter of my Army life in a log shack, chinked with mud and 
lined with muslin. Soon after joining I went to the Quartermaster*s 
Warehouse and drew my first quarter's allowance of stationery. There 
were two or three pen points, a penholder, pencil, some paper and en- 
velopes, and among other things, a stick of sealing wax and a spool of 
tape. This tape, as it was the property of the government, should have 
been "red." As a matter-of-fact, it was a dark pink. I have yet to see 
any of it that had a good red color. 

I was curious to know why this "red tape" was issued to officers. 
Later, when I became recorder of every board of officers that was or- 
ganized in the post, and had to bind together the sheets of paper on which 
was written laboriously in long hand, the proceedings of these various 
boards, I found a good use for this tape. Those were the days before 
typewriters, paper fasteners, staples, etc. 

The first time I tried to Dunch a hole through fifteen or twenty 
sheets of paper with the blade of a jack-knife, then tried to insert through 
these holes a piece of tape that frayed at the ends and tried to tie the 
whole thing together neatly, the result obtained was, to say the least, 
lacking in neatness and beauty. As time went on, however, and as I 
gained in experience, I found that the red tape, if properly used in fasten- 
ing the sheets together, became a neat, satisfactory and very serviceable 
agent in holding the pages of my proceedings together. 

This tape was unsatisfactory onlv so long as I was unskilled, punched 
the holes with the dull blade of a jack-knife, and stuffed the tape through 
the holes with this same blade. When I became skilled in the job, used 
a real punch of the right sort to make the holes and used a needle to draw 
the tape through the holes, there was no longer any difficulty and the 
tape became a very serviceable and satisfactory article with which to 
perform the job. 

This tape of which I have been speaking — ^the red tape of my youth — 
was strong, serviceable, effective and served its purnose perfectly. Its 
purpose was to tie things together, to bind them and hold them in place. 
It is undoubtedly true that because the real red tape bound things to- 
gether, this other thing about which I am to talk to you of the "Cutting 
Out" has been also called "Red Tape." 

This other thine is circnmlocntion, delay, indecision and general in- 
ability to get from one point to another by the straight line that separates 
them. Just when it began to be called "Red Tape" no one knows. Surely 
he who so misnamed it must have been a very poor judge or appearances 
or he would have perceived that he was thus dishonoring the best friend 
the business world ever had. 

Let us get this thing rightly named before we go any farther. The 
correct name is "Inefficiency." 

I am not real sure that the g-overnment has a monopoly^ on "ineffi- 
ciency" either. We all see this characteristic wherever it manifests itself 
in government operations, for we are all watching the government whether 
we are for it or against it. It is not for me to say that inefficiency exists 
outside of government circles, but I have a suspicion that it can be found 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 145 

in other places. Why do you not call it "Red Tape," when you see the 
effects in your dealings with a business house? Just why apply it solely to 
government operations? However, if you must consider it a government 
monopoly, why don't you insist on cold and silent death for it instead of 
assuming that it is a necessary function of the government? 

While Uncle Sam's credit is good and he is known to have unlimited 
resources, still he is looked upon by most business concerns as a poor 
customer and one not at all desirable. The reason for this attitude on 
the part of so many houses is that they consider the old gentleman very 
particular and extreme in his requirements, very cantankerous and very 
slow pay. But, as a matter-of-fact, if they once get acquainted with him, 
learn his ways and understand why he is particular, and at times severe, 
and further, that he can and will pay at the close of a transaction as 
quickly as any of their best customers, they will all change their minds 
and be glad to have his name on their books just as often as they can get 
it there. 

In view of the fact that the government has thousands of agents 
attending to its multitudinous business transactions, it is necessary that 
certain rules and regulations shall be complied with and that there shall 
be applied certain well-defined lines of procedure in order that the govern- 
ment, its agent and the contractor, may have their individual interests 
protected. Now the thing that irritates the business man and makes 
Uncle Sam at times an undesirable customer, is not these rules, regula- 
tions, forms, etc. but the manner in which his agent attends to the details 
pertaining to them. The average citizen applies to these two factors (the 
rules, etc., and their application by the agent, the well-known term "red 
tape." 

It is very unfortunate that the minds of business men became con- 
fused about this, and that the term "red tape" has been applied as it has. 
Because, as a consequence, there has grown up the feeling and belief that 
the fault that prevents prompt transaction of government business lies 
in government requirements. 

Have you ever analyzed these government requirements or sompared 
them with the requirements of any big business? If you ever do, you will 
find that they are all necessary and essential, and further, that they con- 
tain nothing that should interfere with a prompt, intelligent and satis- 
factory transaction of business. 

When you meet with delays, circumlocution, "passing the buck," etc., 
in attempting to transact government business, instead of finding the 
cause to be "red tape" it will be found to be the inefficiency of the govern- 
ment's agent. Either the agent himself lacks plain business sense, is 
afraid to take responsibility, has poor judgment, or has some other dis- 
qualifying defect, or else the man "higher up" possesses one or more of 
these defects. 

There is in Chicago a Depot of the much abused Ouartermaster Corps, 
United States Army, that is transacting as agent for ITncle Sam's business 
that runs into the millions. In the year just ending, the volume of busi- 
ness has grown in dollars and conts about 300 times. The number of its 
employees has increased 60 times. Its transactions have increased so in 



k 



146 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

• — — — — ^ — . — ^ 

number that the clerical force is now 40 times greater than before the 
war. It is handling in enormous volume several lines of busines in which, 
before the war, it had had absolutely no experience. 

If any of you want to transact any business with this Depot you will 
find your way absolutely free and clear from obstacles ; you will be directed 
straight to the man who handles that business; and you will find him 
clothed with full authority to deal with you. However, if you like to 
transact business in a leisurely manner, the institution will not please you 
because its key note is ''get quick results." This institution makes prompt 
payments to all its contractors, all bills being paid within ten days except 
for some fault over which it has no control. 

Now, the institution just referred to transacts its business strictly 
in accordance with all the rules and regulations that Uncle Sam has made. 
It uses all the **red tape" that is provided for. It does not, however, let 
the "red tape" become tangled, nor does it permit ''passing of the buck,** 
"circumlocution" or any other form of inefficiency. 

In my reference to Uncle Sam, I gave as one reason why many men 
did not like to do business with him, the fact that he was very particular 
and extreme in his requirements. 

Here again must we consider the relations of the government, its 
agent and the contractor. You will admit that the terms and conditions 
must be so clear that there can be no disagreement between the agent 
and contractor as to their requirements. There is a further necessity for 
this clearness, and that is the right of all competitors for a particular 
item of business to know and to feel that they all stand on the same 
ground. 

If several competitors submit propositions covering a given transac- 
tion, it is important not only that their proposals be on the same basis but 
also that the winner shall be required to deliver on that basis and that the 
losers shall know that fact. 

One result of Uncle Sam's "being particular" is that every man who 
desires to do business with him knows that he has identically the same 
rights as any other man, and that the winner must "deliver the same 
goods" as the loser would have been required to deliver had their positions 
been reversed. Inefficiency too often defeats the government's purpose 
here by conducting transactions so that all interested feel that they are 
not getting a square deal. 

The government intends to give every man a square deal. If he does 
not get it, the fault usually lies with the government's agent either on 
account of his inefficiency or dishonesty. It is rarely by reason of dis- 
honesty. 

Being an Army man, it is but natural that in this talk I should have 
in mind more particularly the relations between Uncle Sam and the busi- 
ness man, as they affect Army transactions. And in this connection, let 
me call to your attention another feature of Uncle Sam's activities that 
sometimes displeases the contractor. I refer to the matter of inspections 
of products during process of manufacture and when finished. 

Every patriotic man in these troublous times wants to give his best 
to the government. Now and then there may be a business man who 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 147 



would take advantage of the situation and "beat" the government in a 
deal if he could. But this type of man is rare and practically negligible. 
The business man of to-day can succeed by fair means and, with rare ex- 
ception unless a man can succeed in business by fair means he prefers not 
to succeed at all. 

Inspections then, are not made because it is felt that the seller does not 
want to deliver the goods. They are made because it is known that human 
nature is disposed to carelessness. A man who performs the same task 
over and over again cannot be expected to keep his every action up to 
the mark set for him. Superintendents get careless. Laborers get care- 
less. We all have ''spells" of carelessness. There are many causes for 
defects of one kind or another, and all traceable to natural conditions in 
which the question of honesty is not involved. 

In the Army we must consider the requirements primarily of the sol- 
dier in the field. Incidentally, of course, we consider the needs of the 
men in camp or garrison. But whatever we provide for the man in the 
field we must know shall be just what it should be when it reaches him. 

After a soldier has "toted" in his pack an extra pair of shoes which 
he drew for the very purpose of replacing the pair on his feet, when they 
were worn out, it would not conduce greatly to his comfort if he found a 
nail protruding inside the shoe, an improperly sewed seam or any other 
defect that would injure his feet. 

You want to feel that your boy, who has made the supreme sacrifice 
and is "somewhere in France" will be well-cared for and that his food, 
his clothing; in fact, everything he needs, reaches him in the best possible 
condition and as nearly perfect as it can be. And Uncle Sam wants the 
same thing. So he expects that his agents, who are procuring these sup- 
plies, shall carefully inspect them and assure themselves that no careless 
workman can do the soldier at the front an unintentional injury. 

I have made reference to the Chicago Depot of the Quartermaster 
Corps. Perhaps you will be interested in a few of the details connected 
with the work of that organization. 

It is the duty of the Quartermaster Corps to provide the troops with 
food and clothing, to pay them, to transport them by wagon, motor truck, 
railroad or ship. The Corps builds waterworks, sewers, roads, walks, 
wharves, docks, etc. It furnishes and maintains animals and harness for 
all wagon transport; it provides cooking utensils, mess equipment, rolling 
kitchens, etc. 

It is the problem of the Quartermaster Corps to purchase the thou- 
sand and one articles necessary for the proper performance of its duties, 
to transport these articles and distribute them to the men. 

To show you something of the problem involved in providing food 
for the men here are a few figures: 

An army of a million men requires transportation for 5,000.000 
pounds of ration articles per day. This is about 1,000 carloads per month. 
One million men require for one month about 8;>,000,000 pounds of meat, 
fresh beef, bacon and canned meats, 1,000,000 lbs. of lard, 087,000 lbs. of 
butter, ^.7,500,000 lbs. of flour, 2,400,000 lbs. of roasted and ground cof- 
fee, 3,000,000 lbs. of sugar and large quantities of salt, pepper, milk, etc. 



148 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



In addition to the food there must be provided tons of clothing, tons of 
ammunition, of fuel, etc. 

A portion of the work of the Quartermaster Corps is being performed 
by the Chicago Depot. 

When war was declared, the Depot had about forty civil employes, 
three officers, one motor truck, and occupied 35.000 square feet of storage 
space. Its total business was about a million dollars a year. It was fur- 
nishing about 1,000 men with their food supplies and a small number of 
articles of other kinds, and was furnishing the bacon and canned meats 
for the army. Today this Depot has about 1,200,000 square feet of floor 
space and is buildim? 1,280,000 more. Its main office requires 37,500 sq. ft. 
It has 24 motor vehicles which are used in the work pertaining to inspec- 
tions and other business of the Depot. It handles some eighty cars of 
freight per day. It has over 2,500 civil employes. Its monthly civilian 
pay-roll is about $120,000 as compared with about $4,000 last April.^ From 
a force of eight experienced clerks it has expanded by bringing in new 
and inexperienced men to a force of about 325 clerks. Its force of Inspec- 
tors has increased from two men to three hundred. There are 96 officers 
on duty and of these officers all but two are Reserve Officers coming from 
civil life. It has been necessary to train the clerks and inspectors and to 
familiarize the officers with Army methods, while the buiness was increas- 
ing by leaps and bounds. We are paying out about twenty-five million dol- 
lars per month. We are handling about 500 bills per day. We have going 
contracts with about 1,500 firms, and make about 75 purchases per day. 
Our bills are paid, as a rule, within ten days. Just now, we are a little 
behind this record, but "There's a Reason." Deliveries of goods to our 
warehouses have about doubled in the last six weeks. 

You know ever since this thing besran IVe felt like I did the day I 
learned to swim. I was a little fellow. The big boys took me out over the 
deep hole and told me to "swim or die." Then every time I got my head 
out of water some big fellow pushed it under. So every time I begin to 
think my troubles at the Depot are over, along comes an avalanche of new 
work or of supplies and down I go again. 

In order that the quality of the articles delivered on contracts may 
be kept up to the reauirements of the contracts, a force of inspectors is 
maintained. As an illustration, in a purchase by the Chicago Depot of 
packing house nroducts, Inspectors under the jurisdiction of this Depot 
are on duty in the nackine houses at all times while the supplies are being 
prepared. When bacon is purchased our Inspectors see the fresh meat 
when it is cut from the carcass, they see it when it is put into cure, have 
access to it at all times while it is in the cellars being cured, see it while 
it is being smoked, witness its Packing, weighing and marking. In the 
case of canned meats, like corned beef, these inspectors examine the car- 
casses from which the meat is to be cut, they witness the cutting of the 
meat from the carcass, watch it while it is undergoing cure, while it is 
being trimmed, and cut up readv to be put into the cans, see the cans 
filled, verify the weights and see it packed in the cases and made ready for 
shipment. So that everv pound of meat which goes out to the army from 
the packing houses is known by the Depot in Chicago to be absolutely 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 149 



all right both as to quantity and quality. It is our duty to see that it is 
prepared in such a way that when it reaches the men in the trenches, it 
will be just as good as it was the day when it was prepared. In addition 
to the Inspectors maintained for packing house products, in Chicago, this 
Depot has under its supervision meat inspectors in practically all of the 
packing plants in the middle west. 

In connection with the work of the Chicago depot, let me call your 
attention to the fact that in addition to the rapid and enormous growth 
to which I have alluded, there is the further fact that we have started 
and are conducting several different lines of business to which every one 
of us was a total stranger at the beginning and anyone of which would 
be an enormous business by itself. 

This tremendous business is handled by an office organization which 
is divided into fourteen divisions. Three of these divisions are so closely 
related that one officer is able to direct them and there are therefore only 
twelve heads of divisions. These twelve officers with a total of twelve as- 
sistants, transact the business of the Depot under the direction of the 
Depot Quartermaster. The other seventy officers are all on inspection 
duty. 

The salary list of the Depot, including that of the 90 odd officers and 
2,400 odd civilian employes amounts to about one-half of one per cent of 
the total volume of busines. The man who has guided this business from 
its infancy and is still directing it draws the munificent salary of $6,000 
per year, and the other salaries are in proportion. 

I believe you will pardon me if I proudly call your attention to the 
fact that thus far no one has had occasion to charge the Chicago Depot 
with a single failure in the performance of any one of its functions. This 
splendid record has been attained through the whole-hearted co-operation, 
staunch loyalty and steadfast purpose of my assistants. 

The manner by which this support and wonderful success of my as- 
sistants has been obtained is shown by the following outline of my ideas 
of the duties of an executive. It is an extract from a letter dictated by 
me and sent a few days ago to my son. 

*'No man can be a success as an executive in a large business who 
allows his time to be absorbed to any degree in matters of detail pertaining 
to the routine work of the business. The most successful executive is he 
who can develop the best policies, and at the same time delegate to the 
men under him the necessary authority to enable them to handle, without 
interference from above or below, every detail which comes within the 
sphere of their responsibility. Any man who has not the courage and the 
strength to give to his assistants full authority is necessarily a weak execu- 
tive and, what is still more important, will, with equal necessity develop a 
weak corps of assistants. 

It is a well-known fact that a man who is not allowed discretion will 
sooner or later become a mere automaton and will be afraid to take anv 
responsibility whatevei-. Failure to place authority in the hands of men 
develops automatons, and this reacts on the man responsible for such a 
failure by his being loaded down by his assistants with details which they 
have not the courage to handle themselves. 



150 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

An executive should never be afraid that the men to whom he dele- 
gates authority will make mistakes in exercising their authority. If. the 
executive will but give the matter a moment's thought he will realize that 
he himself in the execution of those duties imposed upon him will make 
mistakes. It should, therefore, be expected by him, and he will take it 
for granted, that his subordinates will make mistakes, and in his relations 
with his subordinates he should be glad to have them make an occasional 
mistake because it is proof that such subordinates are actively engaged 
in handling the business assigned to them. As it is much easier to see 
mistakes when made by another than it is to see those made by yourself, let 
the source of those mistakes be with your subordinates where you can more 
readily detect them. 

If you have not already done so, you should at once group the various 
activities of the yard so that you will have as many groups of duties as you 
have subordinates. Your care in making these groups should be to avoid 
as far as practicable bringing together in one group duties which are not 
closely related. The more closely related the duties in any group are, the 
easier can a subordinate in charge of that group attend to those duties. 
Having arranged these groups, you should assign a subordinate in charge 
of each of them and explain to each one, preferably in writing, what his 
duties are, sufficiently in detail to give him a complete and full under- 
standing. At the same time, each subordinate should be informed that he 
will be held to a strict accountability for the performance of his duties 
and that it will be necessary for him to work out his details as well as to 
take full responsibility for the results. He should also be informed that he 
can be at liberty at any time to consult with you as to what action he should 
take, but you should be careful if such a consultation takes place to allow 
a subordinate to develop his plan of action before giving him his instruc- 
tions, and if possible, you should accept his plan of action rather than 
modify it or substitute one of your own. The reason for this is that by 
such acceptance it not only will inspire him with confidence in himself, 
but you give him the future incentive to try and work out the solutions of 
the problems which belong and arise in his group of duties. It is much bet- 
ter to accept the subordinate's proposed plan of action and to reserve for 
a later occasion a discussion of that plan of action, telling him that while 
his plan served its purpose, at the same time if he had made certain 
changes, he would have gotten better results, than it is to kill his enthusi- 
asm at the outset by telling him his plan is no good. I make it an invari- 
able rule when my subordinates come to me for advice to ascertain first 
what they think should be done, and if it be possible, I always assent to 
their plan of action ; although, there are times when I believe some other 
plan would get better results. The object attained here; namely, inspir- 
ing the man to have confidence in himself and so materially increasing his 
mental growth, is so very important that the results that would be obtained 
by turning him down would not warrant the depressing effect that it will 
have on the man. 

I assume from what you have said, that you have your force lined up 
in some sort of an organization, and that you have in that organization 
various departments or divisions, and that you have at the head of these 



I 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAPw CONDITIONS 151 

various departments or divisions a man of your own or some other's se- 
lection. If this be true, and you are not requiring the men of these depart- 
ments to attend to every detail pertaining to their departments, you are 
failing in your duty as an executive. You should not touch a thing that you 
can turn over to one or more of the heads of these departments. In mak- 
ing this transfer of details, there is another error that an executive is 
likely to fall into, and that is, requiring such a multiplicity of reports 
from his subordinates that he absorbs time that should otherwise be ap- 
plied to the actual work of his department, and so the executive should be 
careful to absorb the minimum amount of time belonging to his subordi- 
nates, limiting himself solely to such knowledge and means of obtaining 
that knowledge as has to do with results. 

I recommend to you most strongly and most urgently that you abso- 
lutely forget the matter of details pertaining to the various departments 
in the yard. Don't bother with them. It is much better to err in the other 
direction. If your mind is filled with details which ought to be attended 
to by your subordinates, you have absolutely no time for a consideration 
of general policies and general problems, unless you work overtime — and 
a man who continues to work overtime day in and day out will sooner or 
later arrive at a mental condition when his powers begin to fail and 
from that time on he becomes more and more addicted to the habit of look- 
ing after details. 

You have most wonderful powers of concentration. This is, however, 
in your case, a source of weakness, because of the fact that you are un- 
able, or at least find it difficult, to spread your thoughts over a number of 
subjects. In other words, you become so interested in the solution of any 
particular problem that you pursue that solution continuously and to the 
neglect to a greater or less degree of other problems which are running 
alongside the one that your mind is concentrated on. Now this habit, if 
it be a habit — or characteristic, if it be a characteristic — is extremely 
weakening to a man who seeks to be a successful executive because of the 
fact that it creates a tendency in that man to interest himself in the de- 
tails pertaining to one of the departments under him almost to the exclu- 
sion of the other departments until the one department in which he is 
then interested has arrived at a solution of the problem. You must let, or 
rather require, the men of your departments to solve their own problems. 
Insist on it ; and if you have a man who is unable to solve his own problems, 
secure another man in his place. But remember, that the human mind is 
so constructed that in the solution of problems it requires practice, and 
the more practice it has the more easily and quickly it solves problems and 
the more often it secures the correct results. So a subordinate who may 
at first be slow, inaccurate, and perhaps ineffective, in the solution of pi'ob- 
lems will, by the very force of nature itself, gradually improve if he be 
required to exercise those powers that are essential in getting results. 

Of course you know that you are occupying an extremely important 
position for a young man. It is a position of which you can be extremely 
proud. But in view of the fact that you ai-e i)ractically yet in the begin- 
ning of your career it is highly impoi-tant, and 1 might say. otei-nally im- 
portant, that you procoed along those linos winch promise success. Vou 



152 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



cannot hope for success, and you can expect only failure, unless you are 
*Boss of your job' instead of allowing your job to be the boss of you." 

MR. CHAIRMAN : Chicago has every reason to be proud of its Depot 
Quartermaster, and our sons and other generations will read this letter 
from Col. Kniskern which he has read to us. 

The third speaker for this evening. Miss Frances A. Kellor, sent this 
telegram of regret which is addressed to Mr. C. E. Knoeppel, "Regret ex- 
ceedingly that shall be unable attend conference as am detailed Washington 
on matters that cannot be postponed. Frances A. Kellor." 

The next speaker this evening is Mr. F. M. Simons, Jr., chairman 
Board of Directors Western Efficiency Society. He is going to talk to us on 
"Scientific Management a Necessity of Modern Organization." 

MR. SIMONS : Mr. Chairman, this paper is very brief and will take 
about twenty-five minutes to read. I know the hour is late. I feel that 
Mr. Berndt gave us a message that cannot be over-emphasized tonight 
when he says that this is the greatest opportunity that has ever come to 
this movement in which we are so interested. If we are to take full ad- 
vantage of that opportunity we must take the aggressive, the offensive in 
pushing the movement as far as it can be pushed at this time, and I be- 
lieve that that can only be done by having full and unlimited faith in the 
movement itself, and I would like to bring out a little different angle of 
that situation than has been brought out heretofore. 

The movement, while it has been accelerated by the war, while the 
war is the immediate emergency, has back of it a force very much greater 
than the war itself, and an opportunuity which is even larger than the 
opportunity offered by the war. It is to that that I would like to direct 
your attention in this paper. 

"SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT A NECESSITY OF MODERN 

ORGANIZATION." 

I. INTRODUCTORY. 

This is a time when abiding and unlimited faith in the essential power 
of correct principles is necessary if we are to preserve our balance and go 
ahead quietly and effectively with the. work which is committed to us. The 
application of this to the great political and moral issues for which we are 
fighting on the European Battle Fields is evident. It is equally true in our 
own field of industrial engineering. 

This paper does not deal with technique. It is a statement of a creed 
which has kept the writer going many times when the first line trenches 
which we are all holding in our pioneer work as engineers of a nevv^ pro- 
fession seemed lost to our old enemy Kaiser Status Quo and his Chief of 
Staff, General Arbitrary Decision. 

This creed may be stated as follows : 

1. We are given such an opportunity for service that we dare not 
fail. 

2. Our movement is based upon principles so sound in economic back 
ground that while we may fail as individuals because of our own mistakes, 
the movement itself cannot, and will not, fail. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 153 



This paper will first develop in a simple, brief way the nature of the 
opportunity which is before us and then will sum up the sure background 
which is ours. 

If perchance some day when your particular sector of the line seems 
momentarily threatened, the thought here presented may bring courage 
and renewed faith, the purpose of this paper will have been fulfilled. 

Our Allies today are holding the lines in France because of the moral 
courage that is in them. This courage is born of a clear knowledge of the 
opportunity and need of the hour and because of the heritage of right 
which is back of them. 

May we be as steadfast and courageous in our humbler work because 
of our faith in the movement which we represent. 

11. OUR OPPORTUNITY. 

We must at the outset state one of the corollaries of industrial engi- 
neering, an appreciation of which is necessary to our understanding of 
the point of view which this paper presents. This corollary is the effect 
of industrial engineering upon industrial control. 

In terms of control, industrial engineering has a double significance: 
First, we must understand what it means from the standpoint of the In- 
ternal Administrative Control of a single business or plant, the problem 
with which most of us as industrial engineers are dealing. Second, we 
must realize the bearing which it has upon the greater problem of Social 
Control of the Industry of a Nation or a State, or if you will, a League of 
States. 

We are all familiar with the first problem- — Industry, today is seek- 
ing administrative control through standardization of the various factors 
or instruments (inanimate or animate) of the business, that is, through 
standardization of location, buildings, equipment, materials, labor types 
for particular jobs, and even type of organization for particular businesses. 
We might call this kind of standardization Economic Selection or Engi- 
neering Selection. 

We are seeking control also of the administrative use of these instru- 
ments in the day by day running of the business; that is, we are seeking 
standardization of methods and systems for the control of the use of the 
many instruments animate and inanimate which we have properly se- 
lected. 

These are the daily problems which we are meeting in our own work, 
and these we can readily grasp. 

There is, however, a larger aspect of control toward which industrial 
engineers consciously or unconsciously work. We are working toward a 
more intelligent social control of industry in two ways — one from the out- 
side, the other from within. 

First, let us briefly look at how we are afl^ectino: social control from 
without. Modern industry is complex, so complex that the modern state 
has typically failed to intelligently control it. Sometimes it has let indus- 
try alone. Sometimes it has interfered. Rarely has it wisely directed and 
adequately controlled it. 'There are, of course, many reasons for this. No 



154 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



problem of this kind is simple, but one great difficulty Has been the fact 
that the state has not understood what the engineer might call the "me- 
chanical structure of modern industry." The typical American legislator, 
for instance, has been a politician rather than a business man or engi- 
neer. This legislator has seen a great whirling intricate machine. He has 
watched this machine grow in power and size and has then seen it move in 
a direction which to his mind endangered the public good or his own spe- 
cial interests. Our politician instead of carefully studying the mechanism 
to the end that he might intelligently guide it, has all too often not touched 
the steering devices at all nor even realized that they existed, but has in- 
stead thro\^Ti a monkey wrench into the gears with disastrous results. 

The engineer has no right to criticize unless he stands ready to assist. 
What is needed is engineering analysis applied to these larger industrial 
problems, and it is not by accident that since the outbreak of the war one 
great American engineer has been intrusted with administrative power so 
sweeping as to virtually make him a legislator as well. 

Neither is it by accident that two other great American engineers, one 
of whom is with us today, have taught American business men that their 
industrial problems can be broken up into relatively simple factors, each 
of which can be studied and controlled. 

The writer believes that when we secure a proper perspective of these 
pioneer days of industrial engineering that we will come to realize that the 
great service which Mr. Taylor and Mr. Emerson have rendered to Indus- 
trial America will not be the Taylor-White process, nor the successful in- 
stallation of the Emerson System at any one plant or any group of plants, 
but the great idea which they have driven home — namely, that engineering 
analysis can be successfully applied to both the external and internal con- 
trol problems of industry, as well as to its mechanical problems. 

Once this is fully appreciated, we will not only see industrial engi- 
neers directing industry from within, but directing it also from without. 
Moreover, the two problems of external and internal control are very 
closely related. More intelligent analysis of the cost and production fac- 
tors of a business will not only serve as a guide to greater individual pro- 
duction and better individual plant profits, but on this analysis will be 
based wiser legislation which will direct and control and not destroy. 

The Industrial Engineer is working for social control of industry in 
a still more vital way, a way which is perhaps not so tangible, but, never- 
theless very real. 

We are doing our part in making business a profession. A profes- 
sion may be defined as an "occupation in which the amount of financial re- 
turn is not the only, or even chiefly accepted measure, of success." This 
is not saying that the balance sheet will not be looked to, but it is saying 
in the words of a successful Chicago manufacturer, long a member of the 
Western Efficiency Society, that the state should "allow no plant to live 
which is not making a product useful and beneficial to society and making 
it in such a way as to afford good working conditions and wages to its em- 
ployes and a good profit to its stockholders." 

This may seem idealistic, but the writer cannot refrain from here stat- 
ing his belief that this matter of professionalization of business has a 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 155 

greater significance than is now generally realized. Indeed, it may be said 
with some confidence that the most lasting gains in securing of an ade- 
quate social control will be made along these lines. 

Within the modern Era, society has attempted to regain its lost hold 
upon industry by means of what may be called negative, and as has been 
shown above, even destructive devices. What is here suggested is that we 
have in this ideal of business a profession, a great and ever growing force 
which will eventually work out a new form of control through the build- 
ing up of a code of professional ethics. 

Such a movement is by nature bound to be of slow development, but 
will be hastened by the work of the industrial engineer. 

Truly a great opportunity is before us. 

III. THE FORCE BACK OF US. 

But we have more than an opportunity for service ahead of us. We 
have 500 years of consistent industrial development back of us. 

For this movement has been consistent and irresistible, and unless 
some new unforeseen development should completely change the direction 
of modern industry, the laws which have been operating in the past will 
continue to operate. 

Your patience would, no doubt, be tried if this paper attempted to de- 
velop or explain the laws referred to. The facts, however, are exceedingly 
interesting, and are, no doubt, familiar to you. 

What I shall try now to do will be to arrange these facts so that they 
may best explain the point which it is desired to make; namely, that in- 
dustrial engineering with its great task of industrial control is simply a 
part of a great and irresistible economic movement, and that, therefore, 
all we have to do to win is to acquit ourselves like men, and all that Kaiser 
Status Quo and General Arbitrary Decision need to do to lose is to con- 
tinue to blindly fight a force which they cannot possibly hope to control. 

The facts are these: 

General. 

Industrial Development runs in a cycle, in which administrative con- 
trol (our problem) is the crucial point. 

First: Expanding markets force improvements in manufacturing 
technology. 

Then: Improved technique allows, nay, (granted the capitalistic spirit 
working out under a competitive regime) forces an enlargement of the 
unit of industrial organization. (The "plant," the "establishment," the 
"business.") 

That is: the new technical mechanisms tend to demand concentration 
of production for the utilization of their economies. The problem is one 
of increasing units of product in order to secure decreasing unit cost. 

Next: The business woi-ld tends to push the advantage thus secured 
to its limit of usefulness. 

If the problem were one of technique alone history seems to show that 
technological research is capable of keeping in advance of the demands of 
industry upon it. 



156 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

This appears, however, not to be the case and the true situation might 
be stated as follows: Practically, the size of the industrial unit is condi- 
tioned not alone by technology, but by a combination of factors which may 
be listed as follows: 

First — Technology, 

Second — Possibility of administrative control as conditioned by the 
development of the art of administration and the educational status of the 
worker, 

Third — Commercial and financial strategy. That is to say, mere size 
may pay from a commercial or financial point of view (entirely aside from 
and even in opposition to productive efficiency as conditioned by technology 
and the development of administrative control. 

Because of this factor of commercial and financial strategy, business 
tends to nush the size of the industrial unit beyond the point of manufac- 
turing efficiency which is limited because of the factors of technology and 
the possibility of control. 

At this point (granted the market, and in the main for both England 
and the United States the market has rapidly been expanding throughout 
this period) great pressure is being exerted to make it possible to bring 
the size of the unit as limited by technical and administrative control up 
to the size desired because of commercial and financial reasons. 

For reasons which cannot be here discussed, the technical factor takes 
care of itself. The existing state of the art of administration hence be- 
comes of great importance in such a period because it alone is holding back 
improvement and enlargement of the industrial unit. 

When a stress of this kind bears on the administrative factor, a new 
industrial structure may be developed or the old structure may be modi- 
fied in such a way as to improve the possibilities for control. 

Specific, 

Prior to the birth of the "spirit of industrial enterprise'* we find man 
organized under what has been called a "co-operative household system** 
involving no market in the modem sense, but in which the various mem- 
bers of the group produced co-operatively for the group, with instruments 
and materials shared by the group. The method was wasteful, even for 
the immediate group concerned, and failed still further in meeting the in- 
tergroup needs, such as they were. 

Then the cycle gets to work, and soon a situation develops which 
forces industry to change its methods of Administrative control, and pres- 
ently the "handicraft system** develops. 

Under this system (with its attendant conditions of immediate cus- 
tom market known personally to the craftsm_en) each craftsman became 
the responsible head of his o^^ti production. He o^^Tled his tools, equip- 
ment, and material, and immediately supervised such labor as was neces- 
sary. He was his own purchasing agent, mechanic and salesman. 

No system has ever developed a more responsible control plan than 
this. Qualitatively it was perfect. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 157 



Its limitations very soon became apparent, however, once our cycle 
began to work, and before long a new change was demanded. 

Again the stress came upon administrative control. 

Markets widened, became less immediate, and needed organizing. 
Then technique developed, and equipment became expensive for the small 
handcraftsman, etc., down through our cycle. 

Finally, the stress became too great, and the system went the way 
of the older orders, first the so-called ''domestic system" and later, after 
further changes, the modern factory system gradually coming into its 
place. We have not arrived at the years 1760 to 1775 a^d ''the Modern 
Factory System!" 

About this time industry became so diversified and complex as to 
make it impossible to follow it as a whole. We shall, for the remainder of 
our rapid survey, select as a typical case an industry often called the "index 
of business," the iron and steel group. Within that group (still too large 
and diversified) we shall choose the "machine tool" trades. Omitting all 
detail we may say that by 1857 a series of machine-tool inventions had 
come in answer to the expanding markets of the time and the standardized 
character of that new market demand, and "large-scale production" ("mass 
production," if you will) in its modem sense was technically possible. 

While time limitations forbid any general extension of this abstrac- 
tion, it will serve to make the process which was taking place more under- 
standable if we note what happened to that important machine tool, the 
lathe, during the period 1760-1860. From 1760 to 1800 Great Britain 
opened up her home markets by building a great chain of canals (1767- 
1770) and roads (see general road act, 1773, etc.) and at the same time 
through her newly acquired sea supremacy, assured her manufacturers of 
a steady continental and colonial trade. 

In the light of our "Typical Industrial Cycle" it is interesting to note 
that the lathe, which had not changed materially for over a thousand years, 
began rapidly to develop. Technique was taking care of markets. 

In 1793 Samuel Bentham took out his basic patents on what would 
now be known as "machine jigs and fixtures." 

Then, in 1802, came the slide rest, the true inventor of which is not 
definitely known. 

Next came what was to America an epoch making event, the granting 
to an American inventor. Stone, of the patents on the turret lathe (about 
1858). 

Finally in 1873 we find the record of the grant to Spencer of his auto- 
matic screw machine patents. 

From the old foot or hand propelled, no-carriage lathe of 1793 to the 
1873 forerunner of the uncanny Cleveland automatics, Brown & Sharps, 
National Acmes, etc. of today. What a jump! Here is material for a 
fascinating history, but, as Kipling would say, "that is another story." 

The important thing for us to note is that once the inventions (of 
which the lathe series is a type) had made mass production possible, com- 
petition made it imperative ,and the industiial world came to regard ton- 
nage as the all impOilant factor in pr'ofit getting. 



158 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



The factor of commercial strategy now comes in as noted in our cycle 
and great stress is therefore placed upon the development of administra- 
tive control. At this point, as would be expected, our part in the process 
begins, and the main job at present of the industrial engineer is the tight- 
ening up and improvement of administrative control through standardiza- 
tion of the factors of production and standardization of the methods of 
using them. 

In passing we should call attention to the cost accounting development 
of 1890, and to the systematization movement following 1893, and espe- 
cially to a period of integration and concentration following the chartering 
of the United States Steel Company in 1902. The expansion of 1902-1907 
had a part in the cycle also, and finally came the panic and the following 
lean years. 

Mr. Taylor and Mr. Emerson and their associates have long been de- 
veloping a new form of control. Business men busy with their immediate 
problems were long unconscious of the bigness of the situation which was 
developing and it was not until the newspaper notoriety attending Mr. 
Brandeis' statement before the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1910 
that the industrial world which had been for some years trying to in- 
crease the effectiveness of administrative control, gained the notion thaT 
here was the new form of control which is needed. 

If this outline of facts is correct, there is no question but that in 
the most direct and practical way Scientific Management is the last chap- 
ter in a long series of orderly and irresistible events. 

IN CONCLUSION 

If you agree with this, the second of our main points is gained ; name- 
ly, that back of our movement stands a long history of consistent develop- 
ment which will sweep industrial engineering on to success. 

The only question is, "What part will we as individuals play?" — a 
question which is after all not important so far as the movement as a 
whole is concerned. 

This history also has a lesson for the unprogressive executive. He 
can't **buck" a movement of this kind. He has but two alternatives — un- 
derstanding and using the forces at work for his own advancement — or 
going under. 

Let us be of good faith. The whole swing of industrial history is back 
of us, and an unparalleled opportunity lies before us. The medeival ideal 
of despotic and arbitrary force will be crushed in industry as in poli- 
tics, and we will have our part to play, in the re-organization, which is 
bound to come, a re-organization which will usher in an industrial as well 
as a political democracy. 

On to the task! 

THE CHAIRMAN : When Mr, Simon's paper is in print we will study 
it with a great deal of interest. The subject has been presented in a very 
forceful manner. 

On motion the meeting adjourned. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 159 



SIXTH SESSION. 
FSIDAY MORNING ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION. 

March 29, 1918. 

''MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT— ITS FUNCTION IN 

REPLACING MEN." 

"MEN REMAINING— SECURING THEIR MAXIMUM 

PRODUCTION." 

Mr. John R. Shea, of the Western Electric Company, chairman. 

The meeting was called to order at ten o'clock. 

THE CHAIRMAN: This round table, we want you all to feel, is an 
informal one. That is, we want you to get up and tell your thoughts 
right straight from the shoulder without any reservation. As each one 
wishes to address the conference, kindly step forward and give your name. 
In that way we will become better acquainted and feel more free to dis- 
cuss the various topics. 

In starting I think we might follow somewhat along* the line of the 
topics as they were given yesterday afternoon and evening. I will now 
call for volunteers. You know this should be a regular Quaker meeting. 
When the spirit moves you just rise and come forward. 

MR. DWIGHT T. FARNHAM (consulting engineer, St. Louis) : Just 
to start something, I will bring out a point or two that may interest 
some of those present. This subject is what the English call the alloca- 
tion of labor. When Mr. Farnham was over here he had with him a man 
who was known as the chief allocation officer for England, as I remember 
the account. His particular work was to decide where man power could 
be used to the best advantage. That is, if one man was running a piano 
factory and there was a munition factory across the street that had not 
any men the men would be induced to go where they were the most 
needed. In that connection I don't know just what has been done in this 
country. I have not been able to find out whether we have got to the 
point where we have done anything definite in regard to it or not. But 
at the same time I think it is a good thing for industrial engineers to 
consider the various reservoirs of labor. 

Our rough work and some skilled work, as you all know, has been 
done mostly by the foreign born. About thirteen per cent, of the in- 
habitants of this country are foreign born of various sorts. By the way, 
the foreign born, as many of you know, who have been working in the 
rougher industries, are getting pretty scarce. In addition, last year some 
of the more far-seeing concerns began to tap the resevoir of negro labor. 

There are about ten million negroes in the country. That brought 
about a good many problems as to how to use the negro labor. I do not 
want to get into racial prejudices or anything of that sort at all. I think 
it is enough to say that where we resort to what was referred to yester- 
day as forcible feeding with negro labor in a connnunity we get into a 
great deal of trouble, as some of the East St. Louis riots bore witness last 
year. But when there is sufficient vacuum so that it is evident to every- 



160 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIO NS 

body that this labor is needed, there is this immense reservoir, as I said, 
of ten milhon negroes in this country to call upon. 

Some of the larger eastern coal companies brought them in last year, 
and as one of the employment managers said to me, they simply come in 
and work for a half hour and turn around and walk right out again. They 
could not hold them to the labor. They did not stay. They simply stirred 
everything up, they could not get any work out of them and they had all 
sorts of trouble. 

One large public service commission made a study of the situation 
and they decided that there were certain characteristics of the negro that 
had to be taken into account, one of them being what many of us who 
have Scotch blood in our veins might call improvidence, but when you 
study the negro you will find that the one who is improvident today is 
only because of his transplanting, and that under the conditions that 
existed one hundred years ago before they came to this country they 
would not have been improvident. There is no use saving anything when 
you are living in the jungle where the climate is going to spoil it, and 
therefore you must not accuse the negro of being improvident with the 
same scorn that you would accuse a white man of being improvident. 

This commission discovered this trait and they got a lot of negroes 
to work for about twenty-five per cent, less than the current rate by pay- 
ing them every night. That suited them exactly. That was mostly on 
digging. It does not take a great deal of training to dig, and consequently 
they worked very well. But most of us who are working in industries 
where a certain amount of skill is necessary and where turnover is really 
a serious matter, do not want that type. 

Some friends of mine had just such a problem as I described to work 
out. They had a labor turnover of about seven hundred and fifty per 
cent. That was during 1915. During August, 1916, they had a labor 
turnover at the annual rate of nine hundred per cent. They were going 
out with motor trucks and picking up the scums of the streets and work- 
ing them just simply to keep their skilled men busy. It is necessary to 
have the unskilled labor to keep the skilled men working. Last year an 
employment division was organized and a real study was made of the 
matter. 

Upon investigation it was found that there were certain things that 
take place every year. The Italians, upon whom they depended for this 
rough labor, began to go out on railroad work in July and August when 
the railroads were trying to get their work done before winter came on. 
It was almost impossible to hold them then. It was found also that the 
negro had a tendency to go South for the cotton picking, which occurred 
in September and October. Also a great many of them like to go home 
for Christmas. This investigating division therefore conceived the idea 
of taking advantage of this racial flow, as you might call it, and so when 
they began losing Italians and other foreign born they replaced them with 
negroes in the early summer. Of course, there was some feeling among 
the foremen against the negroes. They don't like them naturally, and 
when the winter comes they won't stay, and they can't get them to go to 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 161 

work on piece rates, and the foremen made these and all the usual argu- 
ments which come to the minds of men when they are doing their arguing 
based merely on feeling rather than on a study of facts and conditions. 

However, this plan was tried out last year and as a result, in spite of 
the fact it was a fairly hot summer and in spite of the fact that labor was 
scarce, the turnover last August was just half of what it was the previous 
year, the negro labor being increased from nine per cent, to about fifty 
per cent, in this particular industry. 

When winter came on the negro laborer dropped down to about thirty 
per cent., but at the same time Italians began to come in for the winter, 
so that when the negroes went South the Italians sought employment, and 
the labor turnover, instead of being about seven hundred and fifty per cent, 
has run, even through all this cold weather, a little less than two hundred 
per cent., which is very good for this industry. 

In trying to do that sort of thing it is necessary to make a study of 
the negro characteristics, and that is a thing which industrial engineers 
can do. You have to broach that sympathetically and tactfully. 

A lieutenant commander in the navy with whom I was discussing the 
subject a while ago — and by the way he was a man who had the efficiency 
flag on his battleship ; he was an engineer officer during one year — stated 
that they had engine rooms which were manned by negroes. He said that 
they did quite as well as the engine rooms which were manned by what 
he termed the German squareheads. Of course, their efficiency has been 
well known and well advertised. He said they needed a special handling. 
He said there was something about an Irish boss that was just the thing 
which the negro needed. An Irishman would give them a certain amount 
of blarney which suited them, and if they misbehaved he would be pretty 
severe with them, so that this mixture of liking, admiration and respect 
which the Irish boss inspired seemed to be just the thing for t he negro . 

It is necessary to give the negro more supervision than you do the 
foreign bom. He has been taken care of by the southern planter in the 
past and is used to coming around for all sorts of things. To show you 
what I mean, in a plant where one foreman is needed to twenty foreign 
born, one foreman would be needed to perhaps ten or fifteen negr#es. 
You start a bunch of Italians on some work, we will say loading a freight 
car with miscellaneous products, and they will do something like this: 
They will, perhaps, take a look at it — this is assuming that there is not a 
great deal of supervision — one will go and get a plank, another will go and 
get a sawhorse, and another will go and get some sheet-iron; they will 
have everything ready in about ten or fifteen minutes and go to it. Take 
a bunch of negroes on the same job and they will ststnd around and have 
a lot of discussion and finally after very much head-scratching one will go 
and get a plank and then they will have another discussion, and then some- 
one else will go and get a sawhorse, then more discussion, and eventually 
they will get their wheelbarrows and possibly get a piece of sheet-iron. 
They will take forty-five minutes to get started while the Italians will get 
started in ten or fifteen minutes. That is what I mean when 1 say that 
somebody has got to do. their thinking for them. 

Then they have another peculiarity. If one Italian slows up on the 



162 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

gang the rest will go after him and tell him to go on and hurry up, while 
if one negro slows up the whole bunch will slow up. Of course, that makes 
it very difficult to work them on piece rates. 

It became necessary in this particular industry to train the foremen 
and instruct them. Out of fifteen or twenty foremen there were only two 
or three who were at all in sympathy with the work. The rest of them 
had to be trained. What we had to do, without making this too long a 
story, is shown by the fact that in about seven months it was possible 
to get negroes to earn a thirty per cent, premium on their day rate, that 
is, working on a piece-work basis, as compared with when they started 
they did not do enough tp jjiake wages at all. Of course, they were paid 
in each case their day rate, but that was simply done by sympathy and 
understanding and bringing in men who knew how to handle the negroes. 

That is a subject I wanted to bring up because some of you may have 
to face the same problem within the next year, and it can be done, but 
I want to warn against forcing them in. 

There is one other thing that I want to bring up which perhaps has 
to do more with the use of mechanical equipment. As we all know, the 
railroads are very short of cars; it is very difficult to get sufficient cars 
now, and a lot of cars that are in use have to be taken out for repairs. 
As a result the government has asked all manufacturers to be patriotic and 
get the cars out of their yards as quickly as possible, working on the theory 
that if you hold a car twenty-four hours on the trip that takes ten days 
it means ten per cent, of idle car time. If you hold it in your yard two 
days it means twenty per cent, idle car time, or a reduction of ten per 
cent, in the country's car supply, if everybody is doing the same thing. 

A great many manufacturers have tried very hard to get cars out as 
quickly as possible. It is easy enough in a plant where you are getting in 
and out five or six cars a day to simply load or unload whatever comes in 
and get the cars out. Where you are getting in twenty, thirty, forty or 
fifty cars a day it is a rather serious matter. It is a good deal to keep 
your head and know where you are going to place every car and be sure 
you are going to unload that car when you have it placed and have the 
men there to unload it, and all the other things that go into loading and 
unloading cars. 

One firm I happen to know about were working very hard to cut down 
the length of time the cars remained in their yard. The best they did any 
one month was about eighty debits. That means that there were eighty cars 
which were kept in the yard over twenty-four hours, in spite of the fact 
that they had good foremen and were doing everything that possibly could 
be done to get those cars out as quickly as possible. A plan was worked 
out whereby there was systematic follow-up installed, which consisted in 
the first place of pre-determining all the conditions. That is, finding out 
ahead of time what was coming in and what they could do with it and 
having everything all set before the cars came in. In addition to that, all 
places where cars could be placed were numbered; station numbers were 
put up all over this yard, which was about a twenty-acre yard. Then a 
priority sheet was used, which showed just which car had been in the 
longest and which, therefore, should have the greatest attention. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 163 



I won't go into this thing any more in detail, but the result was that 
the first month that the system was in effect there were just two debits, 
which was a reduction of ninety per cent, in holding the cars. The system 
was well enough thought of by Mr. Gray, the director of transportation 
division of the United States railroads, so that it is being tried out in a 
couple of large plants now. A full description of it will appear in the 
Industrial Magazine in May and in case anyone is interested in that plant 
I will be very glad to give further details. (Applause.) 

MR. S. W. FISHER (Rochester Railway & Light Company, Rochester, 
N. Y.) : Having a direct bearing on the effijcient use of the men who 
remain and do not go to war, I think you will be interested in a very suc- 
cessful experiment which we are conducting in Rochester. We speak about 
the untapped reservoirs of man labor. I have not heard mentioned here, 
although it is perhaps uppermost in a great many minds, that there are a 
great many very competent and very efficient men who are scattered in 
little towns. We have gone out there after them. 

The Simonton Anderson Company in Rochester are making three-inch 
cannon for the government, and another corporation of somewhat similar 
name are making shells. They figured that they would need between three 
and four thousand men in addition to the supply which we have in Roch- 
ester. There we have about sixty-five thousand workmen. Rather than 
rob our industries that were already in a great many cases working on 
war contracts of various kinds, the manufacturers in town subsidized a 
central employment bureau, securing Mr. Booth, who is well known in this 
part of the country, to manage it, and he has circularized the adjacent 
cities and towns within a radius of one hundred and fifty miles, telling 
about the advantages which will accrue to a person who takes employ- 
ment in Rochester and in this particular factory. We are fortunate in 
having ideal home conditions out there, good water, good parks, good 
churches, schools and all that which go to make the home life of the work- 
man worth while. This gun factory is paying standard compensation and 
arrangements are made to facilitate the coming to Rochester of men who 
might be thinking about coming but who needed just a little stimulus to 
decide them. The thing is working out very well indeed. The men are 
coming in and are being put to work in the proper locations and the other 
industries which are working on war contracts are not being upset and 
disturbed. 

Just a word as to the employe who becomes discontented and wants 
to leave. You might just as well let him go and get into work in another 
concern, if he feels that he is bound to go. But oftentimes by sympa- 
thetic understanding of conditions surrounding a man you can get him 
to stay and be contented, and you can let a stranger go to that place 
where he expected to go, and get away with it very nicely. 

There is one other comment I want to make on the efficiency of those 
who stay. In the company that I represent we publish a little monthly 
magazine and in that now we are laying great stress on aid to combat the 
high cost of living. It means a good deal, I want to tell you, in these 
timejj. The advancement in wages does not in hundreds of cases corre- 



164 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

spond to the increased cost of living. To cite just one illustration of my 
point of view, last month we ran a story on the purchase of goods, gro- 
ceries, in bulk rather than in packages. Without slamming any manu- 
facturer whatever, it is a fact that certain kinds of crackers cost you 
at the rate of one hundred dollars a barrel for flour, and there are other 
things in more or less the same proportions. In general it is much bet- 
ter for workmen to make their money go as far as they can and their 
wives often can do quite a little saving along that line. 

I might, if you are willing, bring in just one comment on the dis- 
cussion which we had yesterday in regard to the employment of women. 
It was so interesting that I did not butt in at the time. There we do not 
feel that we should put women in until we have to, but in a great many 
industries we are employing one or two women in certain departments to 
get ready for the crash if it comes. We want to have a nucleus around 
which we can build an organization. That is working out very well. For 
instance, in my company we have employed one woman as a bill deliverer, 
who goes from house to house delivering bills, and she will learn the sub- 
ject and learn the routine, and if we cannot get enough older men, which 
we are trying to do, if we are compelled to use women, we will have one 
who knows the game and will start the others along. But we do not feel 
that it is a fair deal to put into a man's job a woman until we cannot get 
the man. 

We have raised our age limit. We had a sort of a dead line. That 
was not arbitrary, but you know how it is in all industries; you do not 
hire elderly men. But since the war we have passed that up and we find 
that a great many clever, capable fellows who are elderly and who show 
it, at the same time have got some of the pep of youth, and we find that 
they can get away with it very nicely. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN: I wonder if Mr. Booth could tell us something 
further. Mr. Booth is also from Rochester. 

MR. R. C. BOOTH (Rochester, N. Y.) : I am glad to be back in Chi- 
cago, because this was my home before I left for Rochester about a year 
ago. I am very glad to have this opportunity to bring to this conference 
the greetings of a sister organization, the Industrial Management Coun- 
cil of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. 

Our Council is somewhat more local in character than either of the 
two organizations which have collaborated in this conference. It is a 
subsidiary organization to the Chamber of Commerce, although financed 
by forty-three plants, it is really an efficiency organization within the 
Chamber of Commerce. It is separately financed by dues which are paid 
on a per capita basis, according to the number of employes on the pay- 
roll of the company. The payment of dues by each concern entitles it to 
representation in the various groups. We have systematized our work 
in such a way that we have these groups composed of executives, who 
govern the executive policies of the various concerns represented, the cost 
accountants, the production method men and the employment managers. 
Each group has regular meetings and has speakers from the outside who 
speak with authority on the particular subject at hand. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 165 



We are constantly making investigations and researches in the town, 
and our secretarial staff makes it a policy to get out among the various 
forty-three plants and confer with their representatives in the particular 
group. Our cost and production secretaries will confer, of course, with 
the cost and production men in these forty- three plants. We find that 
this co-operation and this functionalizing has been of great influence and 
great assistance in these war times. It has made possible a degree of 
co-operation which never would have been possible otherwise. Particu- 
larly has this been true in the case of the employment and service group. 
The employment managers of Rochester, banded together as they are 
under the auspices of this council, which is sponsored by the Chamber 
of Commerce, are welded together very, very firmly, particularly in view 
of the prestige back of it. The employment managers of the city are 
arranging for a number of policies which will be the standard hereafter. 
We are collaborating on labor turnover. We have adopted a standard 
formula for combating labor turnover so that when we make compari- 
sons we will be talking in the same language. 

We are endeavoring to launch a campaign in favor of shop classi- 
fication specification. That subject was brought up yesterday and I think 
is of very serious import in connection with the allocation of labor. If 
the industries of any locality can be influenced each and every one to 
analyze their jobs so that every industry will know what jobs in other 
industries are comparable with theirs, there is made possible this transfer 
from one plant to the other, which could not be possible otherwise on an 
dficient basis. So we are getting all the industries of Rochester to realize 
that it is just as important to know the requirements of their jobs as 
it is to know the physical charactertistics of the men and women who 
may be the incumbents of those jobs. 

We are also endeavoring to influence every one to make a systematic 
study of absenteeism and tardiness, and the loss of time due to these 
twin evils. It is a fact that in very few places is this study very com- 
prehensive. We are trying to arrive at a standard method of combatting 
both absenteeism and tardiness and whereby there will be a systematic 
follow-up of every case of absenteeism and tardiness. 

In these ways and other ways we feel that we are endeavoring to 
secure the maximum efficiency of the workers who are left behind, be- 
cause after all absenteeism and tardiness is only a form of labor tumover. 
and it is not only important that we keep the men on the job, but that 
while they are on the job they are working continuously. 

As I said before, I am very glad to be here at this conference and 
to extend to you the greetings from the East, from the Industrial Man- 
agement Council and to tell you all how much we have appreciated the 
co-operation which has been extended to us, a comparatively new organi- 
zation, by the two organizations which have furthered this conference. 
(Applause.) 

MISS HOAGLAND: Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask the last 
speaker how they encourage the continuity of service. How they com- 
bat it. I would like to. know some of the details of how they go about it. 



166 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



MR. BOOTH: Mr. Chairman, one of the ways in which we are 
combatting absenteeism and tardiness is through a bonus plan. I might 
cite the experience of one plant which has worked this out at their fac- 
tory. It offers a bonus plan of this nature. We thought at first that it 
would be very drastic, that it would not bring any result, but our fears 
evidently were not realized. Every employee who has a perfect record 
for three weeks is entitled to a five per cent, bonus for the fourth week, 
and continuously until such time as the record is broken. If the record is 
broken he has to pass through another probational period of three weeks 
before he is again entitled to a bonus. 

This is a plan which we have with modifications in individual plants 
adopted as a standard. As I say, it is in the process of development, but 
we are working towards a standard and we find that method has been 
very efficient. 

Another way in which we are combatting that evil without bonuses, 
and simply as a matter of detail, is to have the employment department 
interview everyone who has been tardy or absent. The very simple 
expedient of having the time-card of all who have been tardy or absent 
brought down to the employment department has been resorted to. When 
the tardy or absent man comes in he states his reasons for such tardiness 
or absence and they have a heart to heart talk with him. This, with the 
follow-up, we find has been very effective. 

MR. FARNHAM: Do you allow any excuses whatsoever for absen- 
teeism or tardiness? 

MR. BOOTH: We have not arrived at a standard on that as yet, 
Mr. Farnham. Some plants do not. Others where the street car service 
is simply atrocious have made exceptions in individual instances. But 
those who do make exceptions do so only after the most careful investi- 
gation. 

MR. FARNHAM: Do not they find that that encourages romancing 
on the part of the men? 

MR. BOOTH: No; we feel it has just the opposite effect. 

MR. FARNHAM: I mean, when you allow excuses, does not that 
put a premium on an excuse ? 

MR. BOOTH: I feel that it does. The Industrial Council is doing 
all it can to discourage any excuses of that nature and to make it simply 
a flat proposition of a perfect attendance. 

MR. FISHER : Perhaps another bonus idea would be helpful to the 
gentleman who asked the question. In my company we have no time- 
clocks, and as continuity of service there is of the highest importance, 
and if half the men are sick we keep the machines going just the same. 
The constant attendance is of such great importance to us that we are 
using a bonus system which we work out and which has been operating 
very successfully in the gas works for a year. It is made up on the basis 
of the saving in coal and oil, based entirely on the figures of the ac- 
countant. A man is credited with ten cents per day for a perfect monthly 
record, so that a man who is on the job for a full month and who works 
Sundays is entitled to three dollars, provided he don't lose out in the 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 167 



month. I believe they do make occasional exceptions at the discretion of 
the superintendent, but he is so severe in his follow-up that those excep- 
tions are rare and the men feel that they cannot get away with any 
remissness. 

THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Fisher, you say you use no clocks? 

MR. FISHER: We trust to the foreman. It is a case of personal 
contact on the part of the foremen with the men. We are scattered 
through thirteen plants, thirteen stations and substations throughout 
the city, together with our transportation distribution department, and 
it is impossible to work the time-clocks on that because there is so much 
emergency work, over-time, time and a half, and this and that, and we 
simply have to make reliability the main thing in our business. We 
must have men who can be trusted and relied upon to be there if they 
are well, or who will turn out in an emergency even if they are not well. 
Those men will mean a great deal more to us than the plodder who simply 
shows up at the stroke of the clock and quits at the stroke of the clock. 
It is inherent in our business. 

MR. L. W. WALLACE (Indianapolis) : I would like to ask Mr. 
Booth in regard to tardiness as applied in Rochester. Does that mean on 
time to the second every morning of the three week period, or does it 
mean some liberality one or two mornings, possibly a minute late. In 
other words, do you draw the line sharply on the second when you define 
tardiness? 

MR. BOOTH: We define it, as you say, by drawing the line sharply. 
That is the only way to do, because if you once give a certain amount 
of leeway it tends to become more and more accentuated. To be exact 
is the only way to do it, in view of the fact that it is a bonus plan given 
gratuitously, and it is not that a certain amount is clipped off from his 
regular wages when he is tardy. The only way to do it is to have a clear 
line. 

MR. WALLACE : As I understand it, he must have a perfect record 
for three weeks before he gets the bonus? 

MR. BOOTH: Yes. 

MR. WALLACE: Then if he is late one morning by a second, we 
will say, that deprives him of the bonus for another three weeks' period. 

MR. BOOTH: Yes. 

MR. WALLACE : Do you have any feeling on the part of the work- 
men that that is unfair and criticism and discontent because of that fact ? 

MR. BOOTH: No, I cannot say that we have. In fact, the concerns 
who have adopted the plan report a very great decrease in the amount 
of absence and tardiness, and the number who are participating in the 
bonus is increasing steadily each month. 

MR. WALLACE: The reason I am asking this is that we have 
in our organization there an attendance bonus, which has been operat- 
ing for a number of years. We give a flat rate of a dollar bonus per 
week for perfect attendance. That would mean then that if a i>erson 
was on time five mornings of the week, and in spite of the very splendid 



168 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



service of the Indianapolis street cars, happened to be late on the sixth 
moming, he would lose his dollar bonus. Our people became rather dis- 
contented with that. They seemed to think it was unfair, because they 
w^ere there regularly five mornings of the week, and then maybe through 
weather conditions, or whatever it was, being late one or two minutes 
they had to lose that dollar. That discontent became rather pronounced, 
so much so that we felt it worth while to pay some attention to it. We 
did so by still offering the dollar a week for perfect attendance, but we 
would deduct only twenty-five cents for each mornings tardiness. In 
other words, they would have a chance four mornings of the week to 
earn an attendance bonus of twenty-five cents for that day. 

Here is another significant point. Say that instead of that person 
being late on the sixth morning of the week he was late on the first mom- 
ing of the week; then for the other five days of that week he would 
have no incentive to be present on time. 

We have in our employ a man who, up to the time this attendance 
bonus was started, was never on time ; since this bonus was in operation, 
about three years now% he has never been late. 

MR. G. L. AVERY (Peoria) : Mr. Booth made one of the alterna- 
tives the co-operation of the employment department as a means of cut- 
ting down of tardiness and absenteeism. For six years — it will be six 
years Monday — we have been conducting a physical examination and 
keeping a record of each man in the department. In our employment 
department the doctors are there at 6:30 in the moming to take care 
of injuries. As long as we have had the department, each man who has 
been absent, whether it is for a half hour or even with an excuse or per- 
mit from the foreman, must come into the department and have that slip 
signed by the doctor before he can return to w^ork. We find that in the 
summer time and in various seasons of the year a man likes to get off 
a little early and go home and work in the garden, and he works around 
and gets caught with a nail or piece of glass, and he would othei*wise 
slip back into the plant without having that noticed. In many such cases 
we find that where a man is taken care of before he goes back to work 
it keeps him more steady. He simply cannot come in and face the doc- 
tor wath a story about having taken a little rhubarb and his stomach 
being out of order, or that he had an uncle or somebody who was sick, 
because he knows that the doctor can read the marks on his face. We 
find it is very effective to have a little slip signed by the doctor before a 
man who has been away can return to work. 

THE CHAIRMAN : Does not this put a large burden on your medi- 
cal department? 

MR. AVERY: Well, we get used to that. We have, as I say, a 
thousand and one varieties of things to look after, such as calling on the 
people at home and seeing the men in the hospital and all that. But that 
connection is one of the means of getting in closer touch with the men. 
You can put your hand on his shoulder, you rub up against him, and that 
physical contact is a good thing. 

We have been importing some men from out of town, Lithuanians 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 169 

and Poles and Russians. One of those men started in to work outside, 
and worked until Saturday. He went down town Saturday night and 
was hurt by a motor. He was carried home and the policeman said there 
was nothing the matter with him. He lay there all day Sunday and 
Monday with nothing to eat and word came to us the next morning. So 
I asked the doctor to stop on his way to see him. He telephoned up and 
told the condition he found him in. We called an ambulance and took 
him to the hospital and the man was just out the day before yesterday. 
He had a broken leg, badly bruised and black and blue hips, and shoulder 
in bad shape and his hand. 

In talking with this Pole the best I could — you soon learn to make 
signs that they will understand, and to let on that you know what they say 
— I found that this man instead of being an ordinary laborer was a 
draftsman and pattern maker and had several years' experience as a ma- 
chinist. It is in those situations that we get next to a variety of things 
that these men are capable of doing. 

Out of one hundred and fifty there are something like ninety-seven of 
them still at work, and quite a number of them have gone from the floor 
as gangway helpers right on to the benches, on to machine work in the 
foundry, and make seven or eight dollars a day. We have some fellows 
that are running electric cranes, in the stock room. Through this employ- 
ment department and this physical examination we can get in closer touch 
with the men. The physical examination to me is the real answer to this 
mechanical aid. We must keep the human machine in order if we want to 
continue his years of productivity and we must learn to handle the men 
and get in close touch with them to get the full efficiency, as the supply of 
labor is short. 

MR. WILLIAMS (Cleveland) : If not out of place here I should like 
to ask what are some of the ways that the men have of getting the ideas 
of the workers on these various plans. I can see how the Chamber of 
Commerce people get together and plan certain things out, but I would 
like to know what are some of the ways in which the workers themselves 
are consulted. Do you have foremen's clubs and things of that sort to talk 
over the working-out in advance of these various plans, so as to side-step 
in advance the discontent that is likely to come if something is put over 
and is simply the result of the management's thought without much con- 
sultation of the workers? 

MR. BOOTH: Mr. Chairman, speaking for the Industrial Manage- 
ment Council of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, it is absolutely im- 
possible for the Council to impose any of its ideas upon the workmen with- 
out taking them into confidence first ,and asking for their opinions. 

THE CHAIRMAN : How do you do it in an individual plant ; do you 
call on the foremen or on the individuals, or is there a representative sys- 
tem? 

MR. BOOTH : Of course, methods vary in the various plants. There 
is nothing standard in it at all. It has been done in mass meetings of 
the entire working force, either at the Union or some other place, or tlie 
club. The foremen, of course, get the individual opinions of the woik- 
men. 



170 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

THE CHAIRMAN : Yesterday we had quite a discussion on clothing 
for women in industry, and one of the companies manufacturing this kind 
of equipment wishes to exhibit some of their uniforms. 

MR. DENT : We had a number of requests yesterday after the round 
table discussion to have one of these unuiforms over here, so Sweet Orr & 
Company sent over a regular demonstrator from the factory. 

THE CHAIRMAN: I suggest that we make general observations of 
the uniform and have the men discuss the various features of it after the 
exhibit. 

MR. H. W. DAUGHERTY (Sweet, Orr & Company) : Ladies and 
gentlemen, w^e are manufacturers of this garment, and we find that that is 
the most convenient for factory use. A great many supereintendents are 
in favor of it on account of the safety feature of it. A large number of 
factories have adopted the garment, especially w^here they have machinery. 
It is not as apt to catch in the machinery as skirts, it is more swift to move 
in. Nordike & Marmon, the Link Belt Company, and many factories all 
over the country who have seen the garment, have adopted it. Some fac- 
tories have a thousand girls in it. 

The girls after wearing the garment, think it is more comfortable 
to get around in, where they are working on punch presses, or where they 
have foot-levers they are more comfortable. Especially in the canning fac- 
tories they have a lot of power presses where they have to use foot-levers, 
and the girls working in these garments say they are more comfortable 
and that they feel better after a day's work than when wearing skirts. 

The garment is neat-looking, easy to walk around in. The back is 
close fitting. It is sold according to the bust measurement. The only meas- 
urement you need to use in ordering is the bust measurement. 

It is made in two styles. We have another one that is made with a 
bib, something in the order of the men's overalls, but with that the girls 
have to wear their own waists. This garment is much more desirable sinf- 
ply because the girls can change their entire outfit and have fresh clothes 
to go home in. They can come down in their nice clothes and wear this 
during the day. 

MISS HOAGLAND: Do you make the same thing with a skirt? 

MR. DAUGHERTY: No, that is the only garment we make. We 
have experimented for a number of years with several designs, and we 
finally adopted the present one and had the cut patented, so we only make 
this one. As we have a patent on it, of course, we would not change it on 
that account. 

MR. L. E. BITTORF: It may be a little out of order, but I would 
like to ask how, in Rochester, the different companies get this uniform 
basis for paying bonuses. It seems in some concerns in Chicago like Ry- 
ersons, for instance, they have a continuous step up ; they don't have any 
definite place such as Knoeppel suggests where they make a special induce- 
ment. As Knoeppel suggests, when they get up to one hundred per cent 
they add five per cent, and in Ryersons, I notice, they don't seem to offer 
that inducement to get up to the high marks. No one that I talked to seems 
to have a method of adding to the day rates. I would like to hear from 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 1?1 



some of the people from Rochester as to their experience in the best method 
of getting the results from the bonuses. 

MR. FISHER : We do not operate small individual machines. It is a 
case of large electric generators, from six to sixteen thousand kilowatt 
machines. There the efficiency comes in the saving of coal, and you know 
it is an exceedingly hard task to figure bonuses, because what one man 
does dovetails into what another man does. We set a standard five per cent 
low as the normal standard, and anything saved above that was split up 
in certain definite proportions to each class of men whose work had a 
bearing on the output. It is very complicated, and so far as I know the 
system is unique. 

So far as the general bonus plan has worked out in Rochester, I will 
have to put it up to Mr. Booth as to how that is handled. 

MR. BOOTH : Mr. Chairman, I did not mean to convey the impression 
that every plant in Rochester had a bonus system, or that those who had 
bonus systems had plans that were absolutely identical. I simply tried to 
convey the idea that there were plants that had adopted bonus plans, and 
using the experience that they had as a basis we are trying to spread the 
idea among the other plants, and the plan which I cite is simply charac- 
teristic of one plant, and has been copied by other plants with adaptations 
and modifications to suit their individual industries. 

I know one plant that maintains a similar bonus, only with a two 
week proviso. After a person has been there two weeks he or she will be 
entitled to a bonus. I know another plant which gives it after one week. 
There has been nothing standard as far as that is concerned, as to the 
length of time, but the idea of having bonus plans for punctuality and for 
continuous attendance, we are trying to make as standard as possible. 

In this connection, this careful checking-up and following up of ab- 
senteeism has been responsible in a great many cases for heading-off in- 
cipient sickness. A person will be absent maybe in the forenoon or after- 
noon, and practically no attention will be paid to it, and maybe no thought 
will be taken of the matter until the persons has been absent three or four 
days. But in plants where there is a visiting nurse to send out as soon as 
they find a person is absent, sometimes they find that possibly a peron is 
coming down with a sickness which if permitted to develop would necessi- 
tate absence from the plant for a considerable period, but with the good 
ofiices of the nurse brought to bear at that particular time the man or 
woman is put on his feet again and probably back to work in a short time, 
and therefore the efficiency of the individual is improved and the time is 
not lost to the company by reason of extended absence as in the case of sick- 
ness. 

MISS HOAGLAND : May I say a word in regard to the nursing prop- 
osition? In the first aid department the services of the nurse liavo re- 
duced the number of absences. I am sorry that 1 have not the exact lij>:ures 
here, but there is a considerable reduction, and it has militated in favor of 
production, because before we had the visiting nui'so's services or boloiv 
we had the first aid depxirtment the gii'l was obliged to go home lor slight 
illnesses, whereas a visit to the sick room for half an hour enables her to 



m LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



go back to her work ; and it gives her a greater wage and also makes for 
greater production. 

We do not find it practical to send our managing nurse who is needed 
at all times in the factory, for that home visiting, but we do have a number 
of associate welfare workers who do some of that, or we have used to a 
great extent the Visiting Nurses' Association of Indianapolis, or the Public 
Health Nurses' Association for those follow-up visits. Those are charged 
to us on a monthly account at fifty cents a visit, and the result is often of 
great interest to us. It may mean that the person who has been visited 
has left our employ and gone to another factory to work. If so, we are at 
once put in touch with that situation. It may mean a return to work the 
next morning, if they think we are interested enough to send a nurse to 
see them. It also means that many a lonely man or lonely woman has been 
cheered in an illness in a desolate boarding-house. 

MR. J. T. B. RHEINFELDT (Packard Motor Car Company) : Just a 
word in regard to "Men Remaining — Securing Their Maximum Produc- 
tion." In the early part of the round table talk a gentleman spoke of utiliz- 
ing the negro labor. At the Packard Motor Car Company about a year 
and a half ago we found that on account of the foreign labor leaving De- 
troit and going to other cities that we had to use negro labor in the heat 
treating department, and as truckers, janitors, laborers and messengers, 
and it has worked out very satisfactorily. 

Also since the war began we have been utilizing women in operating 
light milling machines, drill presses, as inspectors to handle small parts, 
automatic machinery, tool-grips, as factory clerks, trimming and electrical 
parts. 

The question came up, how do men take the women working side 
by side with them. Well, in our plant where we have placed the women in 
the small machine departments we take the men and have them act as 
instructors, giving intensive instruction to the women, and thereby elimi- 
nating the factor of the men becoming disrespectful to the women, and 
making a closer connection between the two sexes. We have found where 
we have put in women help that the morale of the department has im- 
proved and we have a higher efficiency than before. 

Another phase of the men in manufacture. I have not heard men- 
tioned during the whole conference the utilizing of soldiers who have been 
drafted that cannot be used in the war. For instances, in our tool depart- 
ment where we have to have skilled labor and where a great many of our 
men have been taken by the draft — it requires a great deal of skill to pro- 
duce and make tools and fixtures — it was necessary for us to secure from 
the government, on government work, making Liberty Motors, soldiers' 
help from the cantonments in Michigan. We have at the present time quite 
a few of the soldiers who are working upon the jigs and fixtures, both de- 
signing and making, of the Liberty Motor parts. Also the Navy Depart- 
ment has sent from the Great Lakes Training Station several classes of 
sailors, ensigns, chief engineers, master mechanics, to our plant to become 
familiar with the Liberty Motor before the government uses it in regular 
operations. So we have used quite a few of our men instructing these 
soldiers in the work of our plant, and also the women. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 173 



A gentleman asked, how do you consult your foreman as to your new 
policy; do you do it? We find it not advisable to consult foremen on new 
policies. 

Suppose we want to put in a small part department for women. We 
do not consult the foremen about it, but we do take into our confidence 
the managers and superintendents of the various divisions who have charge 
of the foremen and assistant foremen, who in turn have charge of the job 
setters and machine bosses, and we find it is a better way for the superin- 
tendent to talk to his foremen and ascertain how they feel towards a prob- 
able change in the policy. In that way we find from each man his per- 
sonal opinion, for or against, and then take him aside and try to either 
convince him or let him alone until by practice in other departments he 
proves that his opinion is wrong. 

In one department we had a foreman who felt that the woman help 
was misplaced, but at the same time his requisitions for labor had been 
going into the employment department and he was not securing the proper 
satisfaction from that end. We could not supply him with men ; he there- 
fore watched another department that had women help, and he saw im- 
mediately how he could with the same kind supply his needs, and he set 
about immediately to do it. 

We don't believe in exploiting women. Most of the manufacturers 
have a tendency to think you are exploiting women, but in our section of 
the country we find factory help is very scarce and we cannot get it. It is 
not because we do not want it. What male help we can get is foreign, 
and as compared with foreign help we find that the women are far better 
and more satisfactory than the foreign labor. They get far better results, 
you can talk to them and they can understand you and you can understand 
them, so it is far better in every respect to have women than foreign labor. 

MR. FISHER: As a safety engineer, but without making any com- 
ment whatever on the uniform in question, I want to make the point that 
on drill presses and some other types of work it is absolutely necessary 
that the women wear a cap. I don't want to let that get away, because 
they are very apt in certain instances to have the hair wound up in the 
machinery. 

MISS MORNA HIGGINS (United States Department of Labor) : I 
have charge of a woman's division of the United States employment serv- 
ice at Indianapolis. It is my business to find out what the employment 
managers want and what the different manufacturers want. I am very 
much interested in everything that relates to the welfare of women in a 
factory. I am very much in favor of the uniform, and agree with Mr. 
Fisher that the cap is just as necessary as any other part of the uniform. 

There is one thing that I want to suggest to the men in the different 
industries where you have a large office force. To my mind there is no 
argument about the necessity of a uniform of this kind for the girl who 
operates the machine. It is far simpler, it is more economical from the 
standpoint of wear and tear on materials. There are women and girls of 
the factory type especially who need some guidance regarding clothes. 

I went into one factory in Indianapolis where they had employed from 
twenty to thirty girls in the office, though their work had never before re- 



174 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

quired women in the plant. I think five or six on assembly work was all 
they ever used. Now they are putting on one hundred girls in ammuni- 
tion manufacture. They have built a new building for it. I find that that 
company is very progressive from the standpoint of the girls they are 
putting in the factory. In conversation with the president I said, "I think 
you ought to put your girls, your office girls, into uniform.'* 

Let me make myself plain about that. By uniform I do not mean 
necessarily overalls. A department store requires that girls must wear cer- 
tain regulation garments. As I sat in the office waiting about twenty min- 
utes I observed those girls' blouses. I don't think I saw a blouse that cost 
less than $7.50. Some of those blouses were not appropriate for girls to 
use in business at all. You have all seen them; there is no use in describ- 
ing them, but they are not appropriate at all for office wear. If you can 
require department stores and girls in factories to wear a uniform, your 
office girls could have perhaps different colors, but some sort of a dress so 
that the girls will be dressed with some sort of reasonableness. This man 
said, "We can't do it, we are too far out, the girls won't come here." In 
conversation he told me that in the last month he had discharged three 
girls because of their dress and the way they looked. I asked him if he told 
them why they were discharged and he said, no, he had not, and I said he 
was sidestepping a point. 

Those girls probably went right back to me, dressed with their suit, 
skirt and coat, and I did not see the blouse. 

I am very much interested in the question of uniform. There are 
some places where you can use the skirt, but I saw one machine where 
the girls were working from the back forward ; the men were working on 
the opposite end, and the girls facing the men ; there was a bench where 
the girl had to lift her foot eighteen inches from the floor to operate that 
machine. Those girls were operating in these aprons, that factory used an 
apron which was rather natty, but those girls complained to me about 
wearing skirts. 

THE CHAIRMAN: 'MayT[ make a suggestion to the audience? A 
topic was touched upon slightly today which was also brought out last 
evening by Mr. Muther from the Gisholt Machine Company, of Madison, 
Wisconsin. That is, as as the training of operators, the training of labor, 
in case it is necessary to build up an organization quickly. I might ask 
for volunteers along that line. 

MR. RHEINFELDT : In 1914 the Packard Motor Car Company start- 
ed a shop set aside from production whereby they could take new men and 
put them on machinery and put an instructor over them and give them in- 
tensive education, as we call it. That is for producers in the factory. That 
is men whom we expect later on to produce our parts. 

Then it came along to the trim shop. We had taken over the Krit 
Automobile Company, and we had that building on our hands, and we 
utilized the Krit buildings for the restaurant and also as a school of in- 
struction for new employes. When they come into the plant or into the 
school we teach them how to use a micrometer, about calipers, gauges and 
other tools, for instance, the various kinds of wrenches, monkeywrenches, 
and when a certain wrench should be used, and as to various other tools 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 175 



that they are very apt to come in contact with in the department, gauges, 
tools and fixtures. We teach them first the name and then their uses, and 
then we teach them the various routine of machines, and the manual of 
the machine, and then production, how to apply tools to production. We 
find that a man can learn more in three weeks in the school than he would 
learn in the department or plant in three years, because you give him a 
man that has been through the mill, who knows the various methods that 
are applied by the average machinist; he knows their methods and he 
has been educating himself in the advanced methods that we have been 
trying to teach to all our employees from an efficiency standpoint. 

Recently an opportunity has been given to the manufacturing de- 
partment to go into this far more extensively, and at the same time to do 
the same for women as well as the men coming into our plant, setting aside 
a whole building of four floors for this work only. They also teach ap- 
prentices, boys eighteen years old, and give them a two or three months' 
course, and a post graduate course. What I mean by that is, for instance, 
a boy comes out of college and has taken up engineering, say the different 
branches of engineering, civil, mechanical and electrical, but he has not 
had very much shop experience. We start him through what we call the 
post graduate course in the plant, giving him so many weeks on different 
types of machines, also as a job setter, then as assistant foreman and a 
foreman, and if he shows ability as a superintendent we will raise him 
right up through the ranks. That is what we call a post graduate course 
for apprentices. 

All of this work we classify under intensive education, and it is our 
policy to go into this more and more as much as we possibly can from 
now on. 

MR. WALLACE: May I ask the last speaker a question or two? 
You said that in three weeks there they could learn more than they could 
in the factory in three years. May I ask if that is the learning period, 
actually the learning period? 

MR. RHEINFELDT: It varies with the individual. 

MR. WALLACE : What is approximately the learning period you 
teach them there? 

MR. RHEINFELDT: About eight weeks. 

MR. WALLACE : It occurs to me it is not very intensive, two months 
of it. 

May I ask another question. From where do you get your instructors 
that do this teaching? 

MR. RHEINFELDT : From our various departments. We have in our 
whole plant twelve thousand employes. We cover sixty acres of floor 
space. 

MR. WALLACE: How do you select your instructors? 

MR. RHEINFELDT : First, from recommendations from the foreman 
of the department, then the chief of the school interviews those recom- 
mended, gets a record of their experience and tabulates it on a card, how 
long he has been with the plant, what machines he has operated, and also 
they give him an examination. 

MR. WALLACE: May I ask again, do you attempt to get a man 



176 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

that is expert in his particular trade or branch of work as an instructor? 

MR. RHEINFELDT : We preferably get a man who is an all-round 
man in machine work. But take automatic machinery, it would be better 
to get an expert on automatics to teach automatic work. When you take 
general manufacturing machinery like a drill press, milling machines and 
lathes, then I would like to get a man who has expert experience on all 
of them, which is very hard to get. 

On motion the meeting adjourned. 

SEVENTH SESSION. 

Friday Afternoon, March 29, 1918. 

"AFTER THE WAR— READJUSTMENTS TO TAKE CARE OF THOSE 

RETURNING, INCLUDING DISABLED." 

Mr. L. W. Wallace, of the Diamond Chain Company, Indianapolis. 

chairman. 

The meeting was called to order by the secretary, Mr. Dent, at 2 :00 
o'clock. 

MR. DENT: Ladies and gentlemen, the program announces that 
Mr. J. F. Price of the Bro^vn Hoisting Machinery Company of Cleveland, 
Ohio, as chairman of this meeting. We received a telegram from Mr. 
Price this morning stating that he is unuavoidably detained in Cleveland. 
We have been fortunate in securing a very able chairman, a member of 
the Western Efficiency Society, who is well known to many present and 
who consented to act at the last minute. I take pleasure in turning the 
meeting over to Mr. L. W. Wallace, assistant manager of the Diamond 
Chain Co., Indianapolis. 

THE CHAIRMAN : It has been a very beautiful custom to open our 
meetings by the singing of the first verse of America, and we shall follow 
that custom this afternoon. 

(All joined in singing the first verse of America.) 

THE CHAIRMAN: The general topic for consideration this after- 
noon is, "After the War— Readjustments to Take Care of Those Returning. 
Including Disabled." In recent months we have heard a good deal of pre- 
paring for war, and have taken care of present emergencies, and I think 
it is indeed worth while that we turn from the present demands and also 
thmk and plan for the readjustment of affairs that must come about after 
this war is ended. I feel, therefore, that the people who have had this 
program in charge have acted very wisely in setting aside this afternoon 
for this phase of the entire problem. 

The first discussion will be, "Industrial Stimulation Through War 
Finance," by Mr. James A. Davis, chairman of the Speakers' Bureau of 
the War Savings Committee. I take pleasure in introducing to you Mr. 
James A. Davis. 

MR. DAVIS: Mr. Chairman and members of the two societies: 
There is only one topic in every one's mind and on every one's tongue and 
m our souls today. It is that which is going on in France. Carnage holds 
high revel there. Terror and slaughter are advancing to the tune of the 
dead m the valley of the Somme. But the line holds. Men are being tor- 
tured in shell-holes, their faces to the sky; brave men's souls are going 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 177 

unshriven to heaven. But the line holds. The German hordes are charg- 
ing our men and our line with almost countless hosts, armed with weapons 
that a barbarian would scorn and a demon of hell blush for devising. But 
the line holds. The valley of the Somme is a scene of human shambles, a 
desert waste, a sea of devastated homes and desecrated shrines, but the 
line holds, and by the grace of God the brave men's blood that ran will 
continue to hold until victory comes. (Applause.) 

There is nothing more stimulating than the thought that comes to us 
in picturing that desperate struggle ; nothing so convinces us that the out- 
come of this crucible will be the refining of men's souls, and that at the 
end of this war we will see its great compensation in the class of citizenship 
developed over the world. 

After all, there is a compensation for every ill. No disaster, whether 
of human or physical origin, but has been followed by its compensating 
advantages, and the greatest of these that will follow this war will be that 
the American people will think, and with heart and soul and energy such 
as they never have thought and figured with before, on the destiny of 
their country and their own relation to it. That is what we will get as 
our reward. That is what we will get for the blood of our brothers and 
our sons which will be spilled over there. That is what we will get for our 
sacrifice in money and blood. 

We must realize this, that in spite of all theories, all conditions, all 
rumors as to the exhausting effect of this drive, bringing the war to an 
early end through collapse in Germany, have no weight in the considera- 
tion of this question. The end of the war is not in sight, nowhere near 
in sight, and that end will not come until we win the war. It is going 
to be the American treasure, it is going to be the American blood, that 
will turn the tide. 

It was Louis XIV who said that victory would perch only on the 
banners of the nation who could produce the last Louis d'Or, and that is 
what concerns us. It is going to be men and money, but money more than 
men that will win this war. 

When you study or reflect upon or analyze any of the great military 
struggles of the past you will discover that it was not man power en- 
tirely that brought victory to a nation. Man power is only one of the 
elements of the strengfth of a nation at war. Unless that man power is 
sustained by the wealth of the nation, no matter how great its man power, 
no matter how well led, that nation will be lost in the struggle. 

There are two great forces of a nation at war, its armed force and its 
civilian force. For every man under arms six men are required to sus- 
tain him, and each one of those six men requires three to five to sustain 
him. That is the part of the great civilian force. That is part of the 
struggle. We of the civilian force who cannot go to the front but who 
want to do something in this war. it is for us to mobilize not only our 
hearts and souls but the wealth of the nation, through our concentration 
on that one purpose. And it is the duty of every man and every woman 
and every child to do their paHs as members of this civilian army, to 
bring about the end that our cofi'ers must bo so well filled that our men will 
not lack for anything .to hold them on that line, and that our allies must 



178 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



be sustained there with all the courage that the knowledge of our being 
in the fight to help them will give them. 

How is this money to be forthcoming and what effect is it going to 
have on our industrial affairs; what effect is it going to have as a far- 
reaching factor in our development as a people and as a nation? There 
are two means provided for supplying this wealth. First, the Liberty 
Bond, a bond which our nation offers us for our loan to it of money; not 
a gift, not a sequestration, not a commandeering, but a loan. It gives us 
the best security in the world, a bond secured by not only the wealth of 
the nation, but the devotion, the loyalty of its people, their honor, their 
love of home and their veneration for their traditions. That bond is se* 
cured by a wealth approximated today at two hundred and seventy-live 
billion dollars. The income of the nation is forty billion dollars. Can 
you conceive of a better bond issued by any nation in the world, or any as 
good ? That bond is not only our best security but it is the premier security 
of the world, and it will lose none of its eminence through our experience 
in war. But it will be glorified by what it has done in the war and what 
you have enabled it to do. 

Today our nation has issued up to this time nine billion one hundred 
million of securities for our maintenance in war. Of that amount five bil- 
lion has been loaned to our allies, therefore, that is an asset. The four 
billion is nothing more nor less than our preparation for war. When you 
realize that our national increment per annum to our wealth is twenty bil- 
lion dollars, that we may supply that to our maintenance and support of 
the war, we can carry on this war for ten years at the rate of twenty bil- 
lion dollars per annum and end just as wealthy as we are today. From 
our income, if we save but twenty-five per cent, we will add another ten 
billion for good measure, which will keep us in the war for ten years longer, 
if necessary. That is our financial strength. 

The government provides another method, a far-reaching method for 
its supply of money, and by no means competitive with or conflicting in 
any way with the sale of Liberty Bonds, and that is through the simple 
process of buying a stamp at the postoffice, bank or from a qualified dis- 
tributor. They propose to raise through the sale of thrift stamps and war 
savings stamps two billion dollars, a minimum sale being twenty-five cents, 
a maximum one thousand dollars. No purchaser of a thousand dollars is 
encouraged to nor permitted to buy the thousand dollars worth with one 
payment. It must be an accumulation. This means of raising money is 
for the purpose of developing thrift. Thrift is something we have never 
been taught by text-books or necessity in this country. 

My particular knowledge of thrift came with the first lesson in eco- 
nomics taught me in Germany. Thrift is nothing more nor less than a 
simple rule for the avoidance of waste in any form, something that you 
gentlemen are all keyed up to and endeavoring to accomplish ,by any means 
in your power and by your skill. Thrift is that which leads us to differ- 
entiate between two things, and to determine values. Thrift is reason's 
curb on extravagance, loss of power. It is what stimulates us to convert 
all our unused earning power into production. It leads us to buy only 
that which we need and to buy no more of anything that we need than we 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 179 



can make profitable use of. It is that curb on us which leads us to think 
before making an expenditure, and not to spend because we have the 
money to spend. It is the very refinement of efficiency, and by the way, we 
quote German efficiency when the German does not know anything of the 
kind. He never speaks of efficiency, there is no synonym in the German 
language for our efficiency at all. It is nothing more nor less than thrift 
in his endeavo/T to avoid waste. 

Thrift then is that which leads us into that consideration of a pur- 
chase that if we have two articles offered us that we need, one for a dollar 
and another for a dollar and a half, the one for a dollar being just as well 
suited to our purposes and meeting all our requirements as thoroughly as 
the one for a dollar and a half, but perhaps not so well finished, and 
maybe not so much in the fashion, it is thrift which dictates to us to buy 
the one for a dollar. That is a conversion then of thoughtfulness and 
character, into profit. It means that we have earned through thrift fifty 
cents. And that is what we are expected to invest in thrift stamps, 
whether it be fifty cents, a dollar, five, ten, fifty, one hundred or a thousand 
dollars. That is what that stamp is created for. It is educational. It is 
developing. 

It is thrift that has made the Frenchman the marvel of the" world for 
financial acumen and recuperative power, at the same time it has been the 
means of his developing into a model of sublimated courage and patriotism, 
the valorous, glorious, brave Frenchman who is holding that terrible horde 
at bay today. (Applause.) 

Now, the purchase of thrift stamps asks of us all a devotion to thrift, 
frugality, thoughtfulness, energy, a use of unearned power, and that de- 
liberation in all our financial affairs that leaves at the end of it a result in 
savings. Thrift is nothing more nor less than a profitable occupation for 
the sake of accumulation. You can see how the practice of that would 
keep us in close personal relation with the struggle and our duty to sup- 
port it, and would enable us in every act of our life almost to be doing 
something in a direct, tangible way, not only in the accumulation of money 
for that purpose, but in elevating ourselves to an appreciation of our birth- 
right as American citizens and our usefulness to the world hereafter 
and as examples of thoughtfulness and care in administration of all our 
endeavors in life. It is therefore a continuous personal service which must 
be just as unremittingly given, as generously offered, as that service our 
boys have sworn to give at the front and are giving. (Applause.) 

That is the keynote of the subject that has been given me to talk on. 
We know that this education that we are receiving through the demands 
of the government on us for production at as low cost as possible of all 
the necessities of war is going to develop every one of us into a higher 
grade producer. The minerals that we are developing of a commercial 
value are astounding. We have never known of our possibilities in a chem- 
ical line. Today there is before me as a study a production of nitrate which 
if it will be confirmed by a commercial enterprise now being undertaken 
in Canada, will revolutionize not only agriculture but our position in this 
war. 

If you realize that Germany's whole line of education has been directed 



180 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



toward the power by each particular unit in the way of an indivfflual as 
he would fit in the war you will see what has led to her commercial su- 
premacy in many of the valuable commercial products. It was war, his 
effectiveness in war, his education for his position in war, that made him 
a great producing machine, each man fitting in as a part of a great big 
carefully, well-designed machine. War then had its effectiveness not only 
in the field of battle but in the development of the nation through a con- 
centration on the training of that individual as a producer. 

That is where our training has been lacking. We have had rather a 
case of super-individualism. And adjustment between those two is what 
war is going to accomplish in this countrJ^ And war financing as it is 
being undertaken in this country is going to be a stimulant to it of inex- 
pressible value. 

We of middle age may not live to see it, but I believe we will. Our 
children will live to see the United States take pre-eminence over the world, 
not only for her concentration upon the full development of all her 
powers, but in her ability to hold and control the world not only commer- 
cially but as the great arbiter of peace. She will have the power not 
only of money, of skill, of development, of resources, but that great indi- 
vidual force of every American citizen when he realizes what he or she 
is here for ; that we are not living for ourselves alone, but living for each 
other and for the world. That is the substance of the story. To go into 
all the details of the various means of stimulation that have come before 
me would keep you here for hours. But that is the thought we want you 
charged with. Save, save in every way. Convert the unused into use- 
fulness. Convert your idle time into profitable occupation. Never let an 
opportunity pass to see some result financially of everything you do. And 
lend that money to your country in this struggle, the holiest, most right- 
eously inspired for which a nation ever went to war. 

Our enemy has called us a nation of wasters. Let us prove them liars, 
and that we are not only the richest nation in the world but the thriftiest, 
the most united, and the most thoughtful, and that we will be extravagant 
and very extravagant only in the means that we provide for defeating 
them. I thank you. (Applause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN : I was sitting in the smoking room of a parlor car 
coming to Chicago from St. Louis yesterday afternoon. A gentleman 
walked in that had on the lapel of his coat a service button with a star 
in the center, and as he took his seat another gentleman sitting in the 
smoking room said to him, "I see that you have a son in the service." The 
man said, "Yes, he is in service." The other man said, "I had a son too, 
that was in service, and I am bringing his body back from San Antonio 
for burial." That father and that son had made a supreme sacrifice. It 
is not the privilege of every one of us to go personally into service. It is 
not the privilege of every one of us to have a son to send to the front. But 
it is the privilege and it is a patriotic duty for every one of us to send into 
this conflict all that we can of personal effort and of financial help, and I 
am sure, Mr. Davis, that this organization and its friends stand for thrift 
and stand to do all of those things that will consereve energy and ma- 
terial and finance, tha*t we may see this thing end in victory to us. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 181 

It was my pleasure to be in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1914, asso- 
ciated with now Major Frank Gilbreth. We were discussing the war and 
its possibilities, and he offered the suggestion that there was good work to 
be done in making injured and crippled soldiers useful men after this war 
is over. That thought appealed to me, and I have watched with a great 
deal of interest and have assisted somewhat in doing a little bit towards 
the re-education and remaking, as it were, of crippled soldiers, and I am 
sure that there is no one issue before us today of more moment than that 
of bringing back to usefulness those men who are being crippled at the 
battle front. 

I take great pleasure introducing that subject this afternoon, 
"Re-education of Crippled and Disabled Men," by Mr. Douglas C. Mc- 
Murtrie, director of the Red Cross Institute, New York City. 

^^MR. McMURTRIE: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: We can- 
not be very proud of the way we have treated the crippled soldier in the 
past, or for that matter in the way in which we have treated the crippled 
industrial worker. In past wars the best a soldier who gave his energies 
and his limbs in the defense of his country could hope for on his return 
was a pension, which was never large enough to really support him if he 
was disabled, and was just about large enough to induce him to idleness 
or to make him semi-dependent on relatives or friends. The pension sys- 
tem also has been one of very reprehensible history in the manner in 
which it has been made a subject of congressional favoritism and patron- 
age and in every way it has only been an effort which has certainly failed 
to compensate men who have given their best abilities. 

We may have been able in the past to afford this policy. We may 
have been able to take the pick of the country and disable them and 
amputate their limbs and support them as vagrants, possibly, for the rest 
of their lives. That is, except in the rare cases where the men's individual 
character and initiative carry them over these obstacles. But we can cer- 
tainly afford that no longer, and that is being clearly realized in Europe 
today, and is also being realized in this country as we are making plans 
to take care in a constructive way of our crippled and disabled soldiers. 

The same thing I will say applies also to our crippled industrial 
workers. We now have reached what many of us now consider an advanced 
stage in compensation legislation, so that no man who is injured in in- 
dustry now need be left entirely poverty stricken, but the compensation 
system too often only encourages a man to live on his compensation as 
long as it lasts and not to get back again into industrial endeavor. In 
fact, if he wanted to get back into useful endeavor it would be almost 
impossible for him to do it because there have been no facilities available 
to help him get the special training by special devices, or assistance that 
would enable him to became useful again. 

The first move to change this inadequate condition was taken about 
twelve years ago in Belgium, where the state, being responsible for com- 
pensation payments, was interested in minimizing them, and was inter- 
ested in taking the victims of work accidents and putting them back on a 
useful basis. They started in Charleroi, a school for this purpose, and 
that school was successful. There was also started six months before the 



182 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



war another school in Belgium, and there had been started two or three 
similar schools in Paris. The aim of these schools is extremely logical. 
They take a man who has been injured so he can't return to his former 
occupation. A lot of the men who return disabled do not need rehabili- 
tory education. They can adjust themselves. But the man who cannot go 
back to the ocupation he has followed before must be given some sort of 
training for a trade that he can follow. If he has required the use of two 
arms in his former trade he must be found a specialized occupation in 
which one arm will suffice. If he has been in a very active line where he 
needs both his legs and one of his legs is cut off we must find for him a 
more sedentary occupation which requires skill, but where he can de- 
liver one hundred per cent of product in the line picked out for him. 

The belligerent countries have all seen this matter very clearly. Three 
months after the war began the mayor of the city of Lyons in France 
realized the waste involved in allowing to sit around the streets sunning 
themselves perfectly strong, healthy men who had lost a leg or an arm, at 
the same time when the factories of the city were crying out loud for every 
bit of labor they could get because of the number of men who had been 
called away to the front. He found it hard to reconcile these two sets of 
circumstances, and set about to remedy it. He tried to get these men 
jobs, but could not because they were men who had been shut off from 
going back to their former life. He found in order to get them jobs he 
would have to train them for something they could do, and he found in 
the city at that time the superintendent of this first Belgian institution 
which had been swept away in the first week of the German advance. That 
man was in Lyons, and these two men got together and founded the first 
training school in France, called Ecole Joffre, which has already served 
as the inspiration for hundreds of other similar schools which have been 
since founded throughout France. 

The work spread. It has been economical. It has been humane. It 
has put the man back as a happy citizen, because he is a useful one. We 
are now planning work of a similar character in the United States. As 
soon as we entered the war our attention began to be directed to the mat- 
ter, and it was naturally realized that we must do not only as good a job 
as had been done abroad, but a better job, if we were to hold up our end. 
The office of the Surgeon-General of the United States is taking up the 
matter of reconstruction hospitals, where every effort will be made by sur- 
geons of ability to bring the men out to their best physical capacity. After 
he has reached ^his best physical state as far as the surgeon can repair him 
he may then be permanently disabled. He may have an arm gone, a leg 
gone, some muscles missing or some other infirmity. And that man must 
be economically rehabilitated after he has been physically rehabilitated. 
To do that vocational schools have been started, and they have been work- 
ing in Washington on plans for that work. There is no doubt, however, 
that United States will accept nationally that responsibility and carry it 
out. 

One particular item, however, I want especially to bring to your at- 
tention, and that is the matter of the public attitude toward the cripple. 
We can provide training schools, we can provide employment facilities, but 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 183 



if we do not get a helpful reaction from the public a lot of the work will 
go for naught. The reason why so many cripples are helpless and de- 
pendent today is because the public has helped to make them so. The mo- 
ment a man was injured everybody assumed that he was going to be help- 
less, that he was a pitiful object, that they should give him all the sympathy 
possible but give him nothing else; that there was no possibility of that 
man holding a useful job. That is not so. I can show you hundreds and 
hundreds of formerly disabled men who have made a science of life, and 
who have done so rather in spite of the public hindrance rather than by 
the public help. To alter that attitude of ours is something that we must 
try to do in every possible way. We must make our influence a real help. 
We must not pauperize the men, we must encourage them to believe that 
they must continue doing their duty, and by making those demands of 
them we will be doing the best service. 

My own interest in this work has been of rather long standing, be- 
cause I have been interested in cripples for a good many years before we 
got interested in the subject in such a national way. The American Red 
Cross early in the war had brought up to it a proposition to start training 
schools for crippled men. It was not desired to interfere in any way with 
the national program, and what was finally decided was that we must 
start one training school that would cover some of the preliminary field, 
that we would study the difficulties that we would run up against here in 
America, that we would do some work, make some mistakes, and at least 
have, when the time came, a contribution of some experience to make 
if nothing more. The result was that there was established in New York 
the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, which is actually 
under way training industrial cripples at present, because we felt the only 
way to learn how to deal with cripples is to start to deal with them. For 
that reason the institute is now in operation, and it has many activities 
of a broader scope than the conduct of the school alone. 

(Mr. McMurtrie showed pictures of the work in training the cripples 
in France.) 

THE CHAIRMAN : The next paper is. ^'Business After the War," 
by Mr. Willard E. Hotchkiss, director of business education. University of 
Minnesota. I take pleasure in introducing to you Mr. Hotchkiss. 

MR. HOTCHKISS : When I came in here, Mr. Chairman, ladies and 
gentlemen, and looked at the headlines along the street, it seemed to me 
that it was going to be a good deal of a tax on your mental attitude and 
mine to address ourselves to this particular topic. After listening to the 
addresses and witnessing the wonderful work that is being done in the 
way of rehabilitation, it seems as though if we do address ourselves to 
business after the war perhaps we ought to concern ourselves with some- 
thing that is pretty tangible and concrete. I feel, therefore, somewhat 
apologetic, especially at this hour of the day, for attempting to take up 
what are perhaps some of the more general, and I might almost say philo- 
sophical questions connected with oui* adjustments after the war. 

Mr. Dent is responsible for my having dictated four or five pages of 
manuscript which I intended to send to Mr. Dent, and throw in the waste- 
basket. But I believe'that in order that 1 may say one or two of the things 



184 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

that I intended to say, and get over the introduction in order to say one or 
two other things that I wanted to say which are not in the manuscript, that 
I will read rather briefly from the manuscript. I realize that I am taking a 
very serious risk after the entertainment, for in spite of the seriousness 
of the things we have seen it is in some measure entertaining as well as 
educational to witness the pictures which we have witnessed. 

^'BUSINESS AFTER THE WAR.'' 
WILLARD E. HOTCHKISS. 

I trust that what I shall have to say this afternoon will fit more closely 
both into the general topic of the conference and the topic of this session 
than the subject of the talk might indicate. 

The industrial engineer approaches business problems both as a stu- 
dent and as a practical administrator. As a student he analyzes, groups 
his material, and applies certain fundamental principles to the data which 
he analyzes. His analysis also leads him to the discovery of new princi- 
ples, and when the analysis is finished he brings together the analyzed data 
and the principles, new and old, into a working plan for solving a busi- 
ness problem, in such a way as to increase the effectiveness of energy ex- 
pended. More and more business research and business administration are 
being merged into a single problem, but it is still possible in a measure to 
separate the two viewpoints, especially if we think of business in a nation- 
wide sense. 

Considering my occupation, it is perhaps unnecessary to explain that 
I shall try to get at the subject this afternoon from the standpoint of the 
student of business. From that standpoint it appears to me indicative of 
the time in which we are living, that a gi'oup of industrial engineers 
should meet together for three days to discuss the vital questions of human 
relationship in business. The conclusions to which students of business are 
rapidly arriving, and which further study only tends to confirm are such as 
to make the question of human relationships and especially the relation- 
ship of employer to employee the dominant one to consider in connection 
with the subject ''business after the war." 

Prior to about ten years ago efforts of American universities to es- 
tablish business as a professional study were concerned almost entirely 
with a mass of descriptive information covering a number of separate 
business fields. Specialization meant concentrated attention to the facts 
in one of these fields, and in the last years of the business course the 
student continued his specialization through further drill in the more de- 
tailed facts of a narrow field. 

The viewpoint which has been developing during the last decade makes 
it the object of professional business study to develop the power of apply- 
ing fundamental principles to the analysis of business data. From this 
standpoint it is the task of such study not to drill but to educate. Empha- 
sis is shifted from information to principles and facts become means to 
an end rather than an end in themselves. 

This shift of emphasis from facts for their own sake to facts as gate- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 185 



ways to principles has had three important reactions upon business re- 
search. First — to use the contrast which has been so well brought out 
by my friends, the Gilbreths, it has made likeness instead of difference, 
the starting point for business analysis. Second — Through the featuring 
of likeness it has led to a "functional'' as distinguished from a "depart- 
mental" or "line of business" organization of business data. Third — In- 
tensive study of the different functions common to all business has re- 
vealed in all of them problems of human relationship which overshadow 
the problems of technical organization. 

Likeness, functional analysis and human relations are the ideas which 
now command emphasis. It would, of course, be superfluous in this pres- 
ence to enlarge upon the application of these fundamental ideas, but if the 
emphasis here suggested is correct, it is possible to apply certain broad 
general principles to a subject like business after the war, and this, in 
spite also of the uncertainties which obviously the future holds, in spite 
also of the varied ways in which forces will operate in different lines of 
business. 

Of course when it is maintained that the clue to business problems 
after the war is to be sought in the field of human relations rather than 
in the field of technical organization, it must be recognized at once that 
profound changes are sure to occur on the technical side. The extent to 
which mass production is being carried at the present time, the way in 
which manufacturing and assembling of parts is being segregated in differ- 
ent concerns, the changes in transportation, including the vast equipment 
for the production of shipping, and the possibility of aerial transporta- 
tion and communication — all of these things will tremendously affect the 
technical organization and will doubtless determine many of the lines in 
which business will develop. 

Another sort of technical organization problems, of course, has to 
do with the effect upon future business of directing industries into war 
channels, but here, when we think of this in connection with the future, 
we are much closer to the human side of business, because we can only 
answer the question how far the curtailment or suspension of different 
lines of business will represent a permanent change, when we know to 
what extent they will change the habits of the consuming population ; amd 
this, of course, is distinctly a human question. 

The growing emphasis upon the human side of things is shown very 
clearly in the way in which students of the different business subjects 
have been thinking of their own activities. Take accounting, which was 
the earliest of the business subjects in the field. Until recently the ac- 
countant has been primarily concerned with applying certain fundamen- 
tal principles to the analysis of financial mechanism of business, but now 
the accountant is more and more paying attention to the policies under 
which the mechanism is operated, and these policies have primarily to 
do with the relations between human beings. As the scientific analysis of 
business has grown out into the field of human relationships accountants 
have been enlarging their viewpoints, and it is only through this broad- 
ening concept of the subject that accounting is holding its relative ix)si- 
tion as a field for business study and research. 



186 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

In a similar way we are passing from mechcanism to analysis of 
human factors in marketing and finance, and still more, of course, in the 
field of shop management. The attention being given, not only in such 
gatherings as this but in actual business practice, to such topics as indus- 
trial relations and employment management, is eloquent of the part which 
human relations plays in the work of the general executive. A year of 
war with European war experience in the background has made the human 
factor in business, and especially the employment factor, stand out so 
clearly as the key to future business policy that the question is hardly 
longer debatable. 

When we come to consider the way in which the various human fac- 
tors will align themselves and the effect which this alignment will have 
upon future business development, we are, of course, in a much more diffi- 
cult realm, and one in which prophecy is extremely difficult. However, if 
present tendencies are to any extent indicative, there is one assertion 
which it seems comparatively safe to make, and that is that business poli- 
cies are destined to be worked out with a very much larger participation 
of workers and of the general public than has been the case heretofore. 
By participation I do not here have primarily in mind participation in the 
products of industry or the profits, but rather participation in the actual 
determination, first of what constitutes efficient business management and 
operation, and second, how efficient management is to be secured. 

A previous speaker in this conference, Mr. Simons, has addressed him- 
self to the topic, "Scientific Management a Necessity to Modern Organiza- 
tion." Of course I do not hesitate for a moment to agree to the thesis 
employed in Mr. Simon's topic, but I should emphatically disagree to it 
if it were so defined as to limit the function of planning, (using the word 
planning in the broad sense of working out not only specific processes but 
policies as well), I should dissent if the term scientific management were 
to confine planning in this broad sense to the management. I do not be- 
lieve that we are justified in using the term scientific in connection with 
any analysis of a business or other problem unless there is included within 
the analysis as nearly as may be all of the factors which affect the solu- 
tion of the problem. It is well-known not only that the demand on the 
part of organized groups of workers for a larger participation is insistent, 
but what is more, research in the field of inductive psychology during 
the last few years has demonstrated that demand for wider participation 
rests upon the most fundamental instincts of the human mind. 

Obviously no one can predict how far this demand for wider partici- 
pation will go. For myself, I am one of those who believe in the broad 
general principles that action and reaction are equal. Aside from this it 
is clear that definite tangible forces will make for moderation. It is fairly 
clear also that when the war is over whatever the burden of debt, and 
whatever our poverty in other regards, we shall be supplied with an in- 
dustial equipment and with a force of laborers to operate that equipment 
which will far exceed the normal demands of peace time before the war. 
In addition to this it may be that the discipline in economy and in the 
wiser selection of consumption goods will have an appreciable influence 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 187 



in diminishing the demand for certain kinds of luxury and semi-luxury 
products. 

Clearly in these circumstances any unintelligent demands for a re- 
distribution might well mean that there would be nothing to distribute. 
From such considerations some may argue that the present tendency to 
accept the demand for a wider participation arises merely out of the 
strategic position in which laborers find themselves at the moment and 
that consequently it will entirely subside as soon as the post war condi- 
tions develop. 

My own feeling, as I have indicated, is that insistence of the em- 
ploying classes upon such a viewpoint would indicate a lack of knowledge 
of the psychological forces which are developing out of the war. We 
have been too long accustomed to discuss business exclusively from the 
material point of view. We have assumed for instance, that men were 
dominated solely by economic motives by the desire for more goods, and 
that in pursuit of these motives competition was the all pervading deter- 
minant of business action. Here again psychological research has enlight- 
ened us, and we know that competition in the sense in which the econo- 
mists have frequently used it, far from being a detei-minant of business 
action, is no longer obviously typical. 

To develop this thesis to the end would obviously lead too far, but 
the lesson which I draw from the scientific study of business and from 
the observation of the way in which business practice and policies have 
developed leads me clearly to the conclusion that our success in meeting 
the business conditions which will develop after the war will depend upon 
our ability to approach the great problems of human relationship, (and 
here again I emphasize the problem of employer and employee), in an 
open-minded scientific attitude of mind. 

If we insist upon shutting our eyes to industrial forces which per- 
haps for the moment are disagreeable to contemplate, we shall almost 
surely have before us a painful process of disillusionment. For my part 
I do not believe that the difficulties of the employing class in adjusting 
themselves to the new forces arise primarily out of a desire to keep for 
themselves a larger portion of the industrial profit. The greatest obstacle 
to a better adjustment in my opinion arises out of the viewpoint which 
is expressed by the oft-repeated assertion, **I am willing to make any rea- 
sonable concession, but I must control my own business." In this attitude 
of mind we have a clear distinction between the purely economic and 
what I should call the psychological factors in the employer's side of the 
problem we have the same thing on the employees' side when we make a 
distinction between a wider participation on the one hand and a more 
equitable distribution on the other. 

If we can succeed through such conferences as this in shifting em- 
phasis from division of profits to participation, and if also we can holj^ to 
spread the idea that all parties in interest — workers, employers, and gen- 
eral public — are equally concerned in the efficiency of production, we shall 
learn to work together for common ends, and gradually approach a so- 
lution of our great business problem — the problem of industrial relations. 

One of the psychojogical things that we very frequently overlook is 



188 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

the pugnacious attitude that follows disagreement. It is not that we are 
all so selfish, but we all have a certain point of view, and we put our 
whole energy into making that viewpoint obtain. The question is as to 
where this demand for participation will lead. I believe it is a very real 
demand. I believe that the demobilization after the war will in many 
regards make the demand more acute, because the very fact that we are 
going to have an industrial equipment and a large labor force which it 
is going to be difficult to occupy immediately, and the very fact that labor 
force will be made up so largely of people who have made a great con- 
tribution to the progress of the world and to our institutions, will mean 
that we simply cannot let things adjust themselves on the basis of the eco- 
nomic reactions that will come when we have less demands upon our in- 
dustrial equipment, and I am quite sure that if the thought which is 
being directed to these subjects in this country and in other countries 
continues, as I am sure it will continue, that this demand for a wider 
participation is something which we simply must meet. As to whether 
that will be ruinous or constructive depends very largely on the way in 
which we meet it. 

I have great faith in the ability of people to see things if they sit 
down around the same table, especially if they sit down before they have 
got into such hopeless disagreement that they disagree just for the sake 
of disagreeing. We cannot afford, for instance, from the standpoint of 
efficiency alone, we cannot afford while we are going through these try- 
ing times we are bound to go through with, we cannot afford to lose any 
of the ideas which come up from below, and they come up much more 
rapidly than we think in the actual problems of management. 

The question whether the demand for participation will be construc- 
tive or destructive depends upon whether we are as foresighted in work- 
ing out machinery for that participation, making it an integral part of 
our industrial organization, as it does in the way in which we meet tech- 
nical readjustment. Of course, we have a start in that direction. Much 
of the legislation which has been passed within the last ten or fifteen 
years has provided for some sort of co-operative decision of business 
problems. 

Take for instance the minimum wage law. Practically all of those 
laws provide for a participation of the employers and employes and the 
general public in the determination of policies. But a thought that seems 
to me most important to emphasize in connection with the business prob- 
lems after the war is, first of all, that they are going to be much more 
largely problems of human relationship than they are problems of tech- 
nical organization. That is the determination as to whether we rise to 
this place of commaad that was suggested by the first speaker will de- 
pend much more largely upon the human problems than it will upon 
the problems of technical organization, and in the second place, the de- 
mand' for the working out of machinery to make those demands construc- 
tive rather than destructive. We simply must not confess that we are 
going to fail with this problem of employment adjustment either during 
the war or after the war, and from that standpoint many of the problems 
which are facing us as war problems are the same problems that will 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 189 



face us after the war. If we work out machinery for solving those prob- 
lems now we shall be a long way in the direction of solving them after 
the war. 

Of course, one great asset is our psychology during the war. So 
far as we are all looking toward a common end we are in a much better 
position to sit down around the same table and work out the problems 
than we would be otherwise. 

I realize very well that I have contributed nothing in the way of 
fact to the discussion this afternoon. I have brought no experience spe- 
cifically into this problem, although I think my conclusions rest upon some 
experience. But I do believe that we have got to think a lot harder. We 
have got to apply fundamental principles, and we have got to discard a 
great many of the rules of thumb that have been to too large an extent 
guiding factors with us in the past. These are problems which will re- 
quire intelligence, and we must have a larger measure of light and a 
minimum of heat in the working out of these particular problems. (Ap- 
plause.) 

THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Hotchkiss has been entirely too modest in 
saying that he has not brought anything to us this afternoon. He has 
brought to us a very constructive thought. The question of human re- 
lationship is one of the problems that are confronting us as industrial 
engineers, and we are to give more thought to it, more constructive 
thought to that one phase of management than any other which is con- 
fronting us, and when that is brought to our attention and emphasized 
then a real contribution has been given to us. 

The next paper is ''Mending Fragments from France in Canada," 
illustrated with one hundred stereopticon slides, by Mr. Norman A. Hill, 
general manager Carriage Factories Limited, Toronto, Canada. I take 
pleasure in presenting to you Mr. Norman A. Hill. 

MENDING FRAGMENTS FROM FRANCE IN CANADA. 

Mr. Norman A. Hill. 

Mr. Chairman and members of the Society of Industrial Engineers, 
and the Western Efficiency Society and guests, my informal talk to you 
is called "Mending Fragments from France in Canada," because Captain 
Bruce Bairnsfather, an English officer, (who has been in almost continu- 
ous service at the front since the fall of 1914), when he was first wounded, 
and invalided back to England, called himself then "A Fragment from 
France." This appellation of the wounded soldier struck the popular 
fancy, and has stuck, and been perpetuated in the public mind by Bairns- 
father's cartoons, which have appeared weekly in the "London Bystander," 
for over two years now, and which he has in turn permitted to be re- 
printed in little bound volumes of perhaps two dozen sketches each, and 
called them also "Fragments from France." 

A few of these will be shown you in the slides which were loaned 
me by the Invalided Soldiers' Commission of the Canadian Government. 

When I was in Rochester recently to talk on this same subject before 
the Employment and Service Group of the Chamber of Commerce, I saw 
in one of their papers an article sent out semi-ofiicially, from the United 



19 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

States Federal Board of Vocational Education; this article interested me 
greatly, in that it shows that the American Government recognizes the 
seriousness of the task of mending fragments of men. A brief synopsis of 
this article seems pertinent to this subject, and is as follows, — "If the 
scheme of the vocational board outlined at the request of the Senate as 
a basis of legislation, is followed the board predicts that ''the returned 
American soldiers of this war will be cared for as the returned soldiei^s 
of no other war were ever treated." 

"He will not," the board says in a statement, "be turned adrift on 
the world, dazed by his war experiences, with no support but a meager 
pension. Nor will he be immured in a soldiers' home to waste his life in 
idleness. He will be given what every American wants — a chance to 
make good in spite of his handicap. Schools and classes of every kind 
will be open to him free, and there, under the best medical care while at 
the same time under the instruction of the best vocational teachers that 
Uncle Sam can employ, he will learn a trade which will make him self- 
sustaining the rest of his life." 

"There are at present approximately 13,000,000 wounded and crippled 
soldiers in the belligerent countries of Europe. In Germany alone, it is 
reported, 500,000 men are under treatment in the hospitals. 

"During the next few months the return of wounded, crippled and 
invalided men from the overseas forces of the United States will begin 
and will continue thereafter for an indefinite period until the return of 
the overseas forces after the termination of the war. 

Without taking acount of more remote contingencies, it seems not 
improbable that 100,000 disabled men will be returned during the first 
year of fighting and that at least 20,000 of these men will require total 
or partial vocational re-education in order to overcome handicaps incurred 
in service. 

"A second year of fighting may add 40,000, a third, 60,000, to the 
number requiring such re-education, making a total for three years of 
fighting of 120,000. This assumes 1,000,000 men overseas the first year, 
and an increase of 1,000,000 overseas in each succeeding year. 

What the vocational board is planning for the disabled soldier and 
sailor is, first, the general program, and second the special educational 
problems. The offices of the surgeon-general of the army and the navy 
have charge of the disabled men so far as their physical rehabilitation is 
concerned. The labor department has taken up the matter of placing 
these men in industry. The bureau of war risk insurance is charged with 
the insurance phases of the matter: and so on. Through inter-depart- 
mental conferences all these boards, commissions and agencies have been 
searching out every possible item in the necessary program, and when 
comes the final drafting of the legislation it will have at hand informa- 
tion upon the problem from every angle and every corner of the globe. 

It will be the plan to re-establish skilled men in trades at which they 
worked before the war, for the reason that the ranks of skilled labor will 
be depleted ^nd there will be no supply of skilled men available after the 
war from Europe, as every country in the war is experiencing and will 
continue to experience a great scarcity of skilled labor." 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 191 



Now, I would like to read to you a statement of twenty-eight facts 
which are presented to every invalided soldier on his return to Canada, by 
the Invalided Soldiers' Commission, in printed form on a little card which 
he can carry handily in his pocket, as follows: 

EVERY DISABLED SOLDIER SHOULD KNOW THAT— 

There is no such word as "impossible" in his dictionary. His natural 
ambition to earn a good living can be fulfilled. He can either get rid of 
his disability or acquire a new ability to offset it. 

The whole object of doctors, nurses, and instructors, is to help him 
in doing that very thing. 

He must help them to help him. 

He will have the most careful and effectual treatment known tt> 
science. 

Interesting and useful occupations form a most valuable part of the 
treatment in Convalescent Hospitals and Sanitoria. 

If he cannot carry out his first duty by rejoining his comrades at the 
front, and if there is no light duty for him with the Canadian forces over- 
seas, he is taken home to Canada, as soon as his condition and the shipping 
facilities make this possible. 

His strength and earning capacity will be restored there to the high- 
est degree possible, through the Invalided Soldiers' Commission. 

If he requires an artificial limb or kindred appliance it will be sup- 
plied him free. 

Every man disabled by service will receive a pension or gratuity in 
proportion to his disability. 

His pension cannot be reduced by his undertaking work or perfecting 
himself in some form of industry. 

His pay allowances continue till he is cured or till his pension be- 
gins. 

An extra three months' pay, field pay, and separation allowance when 
there are dependents receiving such allowance, will be paid to al Imen re- 
turned from overseas and honorably discharged after at least six months' 
service — with certain exceptions, such as members of the Permanent 
Force and Federal or Provincial Civil Service, who can step right back 
into their old positions. 

If his disability prevents him from returning to his old work he will 
receive free training for a new occupation. 

That full consideration is given to his own capacity and desires when 
a new occupation has to be chosen. 

His own will-power and determination will enable him to succeed, 
both in the training and in the occupation afterwards. 

His maintenance and that of his family will be paid for during the 
training he may receive after discharge, and for a month longer. 

Neither his treatment nor his training will cost him a cent. 

His home Province has a special Commission to assist him in Finding 
Employment on discharge. 

Hundreds of towns and villages have committees, associations and 
clubs, to welcome him on arrival, and to help to secure a position for 
him. 



192 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



The Dominion and Provincial Governments, the Municipal authori- 
ties and all sorts of employers, give the returned soldier preference in 
filling vacant positions. 

The returned soldier wishing to take up land and farm it, will be 
helped to do so, under Federal and other settlement schemes. 

The Invalided Soldiers' Commission exists to carry out his restora- 
tion and training in Canada. 

The Board of Pension Commissioners exists to distribute the pen- 
sions provided by his country for him and his dependents. 

The Invalided Soldiers' Commission and the Board of Pension Com- 
missioners are in the position of Trustees, appointed for his benefit, and 
representing the whole people of Canada. 

Therefore, he should write direct to the Commission or the Board if 
he needs advice or help. 

There is apparently a misconception in the minds of a great many 
people in the United States today as to the actual fatalities of war, and 
the helpless cripples returned from war, when expressed in percentages 
of the troops who have seen actual service at the front. Now as to crip- 
ples returned, our experience in Canada warrants a statement that prac- 
tically all of the men injured in battle can be reclaimed to productive citi- 
zens in industry. When the physician and surgeon have done all they can 
for a wounded man, or in fact sometimes before they have finished with 
him, the educationalist steps in and begins rebuilding this man both men- 
tally and vocationally for useful occupation. 

Let us consider some actual statistics in round numbers, as follows: 
Canada has raised, and sent abroad an army of over 458,000 volunteers 
and is raising an additional 100,000 under the Compulsory Service Act. 
This army of over a half million men is produced from a total population 
of but seven and a half million, and when one remembers that there are 
approximately two million French Canadians who until affected by the 
draft came very far from doing their share, you can almost say that a 
half million fighting men were drawn from a population of not over six 
million people. 

Now as to actual casualties, perhaps the greatest misconception is as 
to the number of soldiers made entirely blind. This percentage is ap- 
proximately only one-eighth of one per cent of the 35,000 returned men 
of the Canadian Expeditionary Forces. This is remarkable, especially so, 
when pre-war estimates on total blindness were placed at from one to 
five per cent. The next most surprising figures, at least to me, is that 
less than 4 per cent of the Canadian casualties are cripples classed as am- 
putation cases, and when you remember that amputation cases include not 
only the loss of an arm or a leg, but include as well even the loss of one 
finger, this low percentage is also remarkable. 

Of all the invalided soldiers returned to Canada Over 20 per cent are 
on account of disability due to disease, and of this 20 per cent not less 
than a half are tuberculosis cases. These figures then would indicate that 
we need not look for a huge army of helpless cripples and blind when our 
Sammies have all returned from the front. 

Before showing you the pictures I may mention that one of the chief 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 193 



things in this course of reconstruction of men is to combat, and over- 
come the habit of idleness, which is fixed upon them in the convalescent 
period, particularlv if a man has been for some months in a hospital in 
England, and in all cases back of this, they have had the semi-idle life of 
the soldier in the field, which is generally brief periods of intense activ- 
ity, and long neriods of waiting, or comnarative utter idleness. It is 
therefore found that just as soon as possible it was necessary to interest 
the convalescents in some kind of work, and once the functional re- 
education of actually manipulating a stiffened member from semi-naraly- 
sis is thru the sooner this work can be made of a useful variety, the bet- 
ter the results for the men. 

Canadian experience so far indicates that at least 90 per cent of the 
returned soldiers can p-o back to their former occupations. There are 
now apnroximatelv 4.000 returned men undero-oing re-education and vo- 
cational training in Canada, out of some 12.000 which the Commission 
has in its various institutions. Of this 4.000 about 1,000 are prenaring 
for different trades or occupations than the ones they were in before en- 
listing. These mf^n u"nder ■^'^ocational training have sufficient nav allow- 
ance*^ to provide for them du^^inp- instrnrb'on. The^^e varv from $4^.00 a 
month for the single man, up to about $120 a month for the married man 
with a larg-e family. The Canadian pension is based on physical disability 
only, for example, if the man loses an eve or one leer below the knee, he 
i=j considered 40 ne^^ cent disabled, and receives 40 per cent of the pension 
.allowed for total disabilitv. If he loses a hand, or loses a leg above the 
knee, he is considered f^O pev cent disabled, or if he is an extreme case 
of heart leakao-e. or an incurabV tuberculosis, he is considered to have a 
case of total disabilitv. and if he needs an attendant, receives an extra 
allowance for this expense. 

The old pension scalp has recently been increased 25 per cent, which 
means a maximum pension of $50 a month for single men without de- 
pendents. 

Now we will have the pictures, which show the progress of the 
wnnnded r^^ny^ from the communication trench back to his re-absorption 
into industrial life. 

On motion the meeting adjourned. 

EIGHTH AND CLOSING SESSION. 

Friday Evening, March 29, 1918. 

BANQUET. 

WILLARD E. HOTCHKISS, Toastmaster, 
University of Minnesota. 

THE TOASTMASTER : I want to call your attention to the speeches 
of Major Gilbreth that are distributed throughout the room. I would feel 
that I missed an opportunity if I did not express my own personal regret 
in not having Major Gilbreth here this evening. I understand an appro- 
priate resolution has been passed with reference to his illness. I cannot 
forego the privilege of. expressing my own personal sense of deprivation 



194 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

of not having him here. I think you all know how much he has done in 
connection with The Society of Industrial Engineers, the splendid serv- 
ice he has been performing along the lines represented by this meeting. 
The Secretary, Mr. Dent, I believe has some announcements to make. 

MR. DENT : I am sure the members of the two Societies and many 
of our friends will be glad to know that this morning I received an- 
other letter from Mrs. Gilbreth. She writes that Major Gilbreth continues 
to improve slowlv but steadily, and that "All day long I think about the 
Conference in Chicago and what we are going to do for the crippled 
soldiers." (Applause.) 

On the program for this evening we had Major Harry E. Mock. Many 
Chicago people present know him very welh I received a telegram from 
him last night stating that he would not be with us, and I received a let- 
ter from him this morning. Here is his letter: 

"Washington, D. C, March 27, 1918. 
"Dear Mr. Dent: 

"After making all m.y plans to attend your meeting in Chicago, it 
is hard to express my deeD regret at beiner unable to do so. Some very 
important changes have taken place in our Division this week which make 
it impossible for me to get awav. These changes necessitate my going to 
New York tomorrow, and it will be imnossible for me to finish my work 
there in time to reach Chicago by Friday night. Will you explain the 
situation to the members of both organizations. 

"Again thanking you for the honor of being asked to speak before 
the Society, I remain, 

"Very sincerely yours, 

"HARRY E. MOCK, 
"Major Medical Reserve Corps." 

The first speaker on the proe^ram is Mr. James 0. Craig of the Busi- 
ness Men's Clearing House, and he will speak upon the subject, "The 
Shifting of New Man-Power to Emergency Production." I take pleasure 
in introducing Mr. Craig. Applause.) 

"THE SHIFTING OF NEW MAN POWER TO EMERGENCY 

PRODUCTION." 

By James 0. Craig, President Business Men's Clearing House. 

Men, money and machinery are the controlling factors in this great 
world's struggle. Money is incidental inasmuch as there seems to be an 
inexbaustive supplv. Machinery, while certain kinds are scarce, is under 
control. Men are the controlling factors of both. 

Having snent fourteen years in dealing with the high grade man prob- 
lem, that is, finding the right man for the right place, and having spent 
upwards of a million dollars to maintain a clearing house or a centralized 
employment plan, and having placed upwards of a quarter of a million 
people, naturally it has been my privilege to witness vast changes both in 
making of men and large industrial concerns. 

At the beginning of the War, many plants were obliged to increase 
their production several hundred fold. Plenty of money was available, 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 195 

equipment could be secured and made, but the first consideration to de- 
velop this wonderful increased production was to find sufficient experi- 
enced executive control to handle the finances, machinery and labor prop- 
erly. 

The old Civil Service idea of developing men in an organization was 
wiped aside and the men that were trained were absorbed by the mam- 
moth organization as quickly as the sands in the desert would absorb a 
drop of water. 

New men were demanded. They had to be found regardless of price 
and conditions. The salaries of manufacturing executives, especially, 
jumped two and three hundred per cent because of the demand. 

It was remarkable to note the patriotic spirit displayed by the heads 
of great industrial organizations when asked if they would give up their 
strongest men to a manufacturer making war materials. There has been 
a wonderful co-operation among the manufacturers that never has been 
known nor has it been discussed. In this way for an illustration : 

A certain man was needed to build a new industry. He paid an in- 
come tax the previous year on an amount upwards of fifty thousand dol- 
lars. When he saw the necessity of this work to help win the war he was 
willing and glad to accept the proposition at $30,000 per year. His em- 
ployers agreed that this man could be of more service to this work which 
would directly help the Government, and although at a great sacrifice 
they were obliged to let him go. However, in the meantime during nego- 
tiations, even though he had accepted the position and had been em- 
ployed, his concern took over an enormous amount of Government busi- 
ness and it was decided by his present employers and the new employer 
that he should remain where he was because the two classes of work 
were of equal importance to get materials "Over There." Another man 
was recommended who accented the position at $25,000, making a sacri- 
fice of at least $15,000 in order to do his bit. 

During the period of the War it has been my duty to place several 
hundred men in war work, both with private industrial concerns as well 
as with several branches of the Government. So far I have not come in 
contact with one single selfish motive on either employer's or employee's 
part when the shift of a man was necessary. 

I have always assumed the attitude of realizing the importance of 
one class of work to another and I would not move a man from one line 
of business if it would effect our war production even one per cent. I 
have been a factor in the movement of the big executives and have trav- 
eled the United States several times the past seven or eight months find- 
ing and placing the strongest man power, that had to be used to develop 
re-organization and jam over emergency production at the rate which has 
been an alarming surprise and satisfaction to those who have been in the 
habit of doing big things. 

It seems peculiar that there have been very few changes in this man 
power on new work, in industrial lines especially. The big man power 
is a known commodity if properly analyzed by actual experience. 

It is almost a certainty that if a man in the prime of life had charge 
of a plant of ten thousand men producing a given number of certain 



196 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



quantity and quality and that if put in a new shop where he is familiar 
with at least ninety per cent of the work, he can do it for the next fellow. 
In other words, if a horse has a two-ten gait today and if he is in the 
same condition it is reasonable to suppose he can do the same thing to- 
morrow. 

At the beginning when the shift of this executive power became nec- 
essary, we hesitated to refer to the patriotic duty for fear that it might 
be misunderstood. We soon found that every executive was champing at 
the bit to do something and we soon found that the employer was more 
than glad and proud to offer his best men. 

A peculiar and almost critical situation developed when we first en- 
tered into the war because a great many of our manufacturing executives, 
making twenty-five to one hundred thousand dollars per year, were in 
a financial position to devote all of their time to the Government and 
offer their services. Many of them were enlisted as Captains, Lieuten- 
ants, Majors and other commissions and they served in an advisory ca- 
pacity. 

You can recall a great many of our men of the greatest manufactur- 
ing strength wlio have absolutely wasted their energies by making re- 
ports and being placed in subordinate positions where they became of no 
value or strength from a productive standpoint as a whole. It was found 
there was a dirth of this kind of men when the big orders for war ma- 
terials were given out, and it was found that those men were needed in 
many cases in the same industry they left, but in the meantime had tied 
themselves up in such a way that they thought they should not make an 
effort to return to civil life, although they were not doing better work 
than perhaps a fifteen or eighteen hundred dollar man could do. 

Roughly speaking with a subconscious knowledge of this executive 
strength in America and without actual statistics, it seems to me as though 
there has been a waste of at least 90 per cent of our executive manufac- 
turing strength tied up and controlled, because through their genuine 
patriotism they were permitted to become subordinates, which automati- 
cally stripped them of their executive powers, not only robbing their own 
industry of their own services, but put them in a position where they 
were doing petty detail work and not running full strength. 

You Efficiency Men can realize the importance of this condition. 
You have personal friends that have been making twenty-five and fifty 
thousand dollars a year and were powers in civilian life who left their 
plants to be manned by new and lesser competent men, while they them- 
selves were of no real genuine value. 

Many of these men have wearied of making detailed reports to their 
superiors who knew not what they were talking about in many cases and 
who were not big enough by actual experience and training to compre- 
hend the enormity and practicability of the plan. 

The snarl in our production as a whole is clearly the result of im- 
proper distribution and application of man power. Although we are all 
working in the same direction, circumstances have placed many incom- 
petents in authority over situations which they assume and, with best in- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 197 

tentions, thought they could control. However, water has to seek its level. 
Many of the big fellows under this control have gone back home and to 
their own plants and are doing good work. 

There should be an inventory taken of the executive power that is 
running loose in this country and every man should be placed where he 
could give his full strength. 

Hundreds of big men have started to work this morning and have 
had the responsibilities of factories employing five, ten and twenty-five 
thousand men loaded upon their shoulders before night. 

It is surprising to note that many of these organizations do not even 
maintain a manual or a chart of their organization showing the func- 
tions of the various departments, many not even having necessary blue- 
prints and drawings. This great emergency production should teach every 
manufacturer that he should have a written record of every operation so 
clearly defined that the new man could understand it quickly. It should 
also teach us organization to the extent that we should not be caught with- 
out proper assistants, that is, there should be a backup for every job in 
the institution. 

Although America has led the world in production and in spots we 
seem to have wonderful systems and efficiency, at the same time as a 
whole we are terribly sloppy. By compiling statistics and information 
most of our operations in connection with war work can be standardized. 
Given costs under given conditions produce a definite result. This inform- 
ation should be recorded. 

Your organizations, by this joint conference is a wonderful step 
toward the co-ordination of our great industrial system. 

A great powerful manufacturing executive cares nothing for detail. 
He wants results. If he were a man of powerful action, he could not do 
detail work. If he were a wonderful detail man, he would not be blessed 
with the power of using the necessary punch. There must be a combination 
of the detail and the recording elements along the slam-bang production 
fellow, because no matter how speedy or what strength a big fellow may 
have to be accurate he must have his records. 

One of the great developments of our wonderful production in this 
country the past few years has been the result of injecting new blood and 
new ideas. You Efficiency Men can recall many an organization that has 
been successful for, we will say, thirty-five or forty years. For some 
reason they were slipping. The first trouble you discovered was some 
czar, who had lost his punch, but through a combination of circumstances 
had surrounded himself with the political power to domineer at any cost. 
You also recall that you could not make any progress in that institution 
until the czar's power was broken and the work was properly delegated to 
men competent to handle the work. 

A democratic control of the business under the general management 
of a man who is there because he actually produces the goods and can be 
removed without friction when he loses his punch, and we all lose that 
some time or other, and by the careful training and development of ex- 
ecutives by forming a continuous chain of full strength man power work- 
ing under the right *enviionment, means a successful business. 



198 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

Criticism, just or unjust, has "busted" more organizations and men 
than perhaps any other cause. Good men cannot stand too much criti- 
cism because they have too much individuality, personality and feeling. 
The good man must feel that he is right with his superior and if he is 
constantly criticized, even though he is wrong, he will eventually die 
within himself and crawl away, which means the employer will lose a 
very good man and the employee will lose a good job. 

Personalities, likes and dislikes and misunderstandings can and must 
be avoided to maintain a successful business. The boss should take the 
attitude of instruction and education rather than criticism. He should not 
have any likes or dislikes in regard to personalities. He should be ab- 
solutely impersonal at all times, not 90 per cent of the time, because if the 
boss is off his feet, in one day's time he can destroy the pep of an entire 
organization. 

Then, too, the employee should realize under the existing conditions 
that everyone has their off days, even the boss. There should be some ef- 
fort made to understand each other. They should give and take. 

Welfare work is as much misunderstood as our business. It is placed 
in the position that a professor who never employed a man in his life 
but who has read many books on psychology, can offer the most caustic 
criticism and even legislate and write books on how to run a welfare or 
employment department. 

The function of the Welfare Department is to bring about under- 
standing between the employees and the management of the firm. Per- 
mit an employee the privilege of admitting a mistake without losing his 
scalp, let him be honest. 

Last week I visited a plant employing twenty-two thousand men. 
The organization has been put together in the last eight months. I was 
told by the man in charge of this work that he had hired 100,000 men to 
secure the 22,000 on hand. There is a loss in the turn-over of 75 per 
cent. 

This fellow is a practical employment man. He has hired thousands 
of laborers. He set about and has a most wonderful industrial relations 
department. During the eight months he has built a wonderful hospital, 
including X-Ray Machines, Operating Tables, twelve Ambulances, employ- 
ing fourteen company physicians, and insurance and transportation meth- 
ods are being improved upon, safety first plans, and they are already hous- 
ing five thousand men in beds that are as clean and rooms that are as 
well ventilated as you can find anywhere. Their kitchens are as clean as 
can be, the food the very best and offered at cost. After giving several 
hundred thousand men meals, there was a net profit of twelve dollars, 
which shows there was somebody in that commissary who knew his busi- 
ness. 

This Manager of this Welfare Department has set about to know 
why every man loses or leaves his job. He has a staff of about eight or 
ten men, temporarily, who have a long talk with every man that is dis- 
charged or leaves. 

This fellow has built a railroad, has built a police force of six hun- 
dred men and he has built up a sanitary sytem that is wonderful. Every- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 199 

through the institution was, * There it is, here it is. It's not going to be 
thing seems to be in its place and his one favorite remark while traveling 
here but it's here now." 

He was simply a live, red-blooded fellow that many of you fellows 
have never even heard of. He could not write a book if he wanted to 
and I doubt if he would write one if he could. He is too busy getting 
results. But somebody should write a book on the splendid work he is 
doing. 

Let us take the theory out of our work and put men on the job that 
absolutely knov/ their business. Our plan of employment, that is the cen- 
tralized idea, has to come. There should not be any more confusion in 
the movement of man and woman power than there is in the movement 
of dry goods or food stuffs. The same confusion existed until the whole- 
sale houses were established, that is the clearing house plan. 

In the near future there will be a convention held of all of the high 
grade employment men in the United States to swap ideas and to learn 
what the other fellow is doing. This will include private agency men 
who, by the way, are moving 95 per cent of the labor that goes through 
agencies and it would seem as though they would know a great deal on 
the subject. 

The Labor Department at Washington gathers its statistics in re- 
gard to the movement of labor from agencies maintained by the U. S. 
Government and the various states. The Government and state agencies 
represent possibly less than 5 per cent of the movement of labor. The pri- 
vate agencies represent the other 95 per cent. This matter was brought 
to the attention of the Department and they realize they are reporting 
on 5 per cent of the movement of labor, but it takes legislation to enable 
them to report on the 95 per cent. 

Why shouldn't the Government provide that ail private agencies make 
a report to the Federal Department as to the number of people they place 
and the kind of people they place? 

Whv shouldn't the U. S. Government permit interstate commerce 
privileges in the movement of men? Did you know that in the south at 
the time when several negroes were imported to the north that several 
states enacted a law and it is on the books at the present time that it is 
unlawful to move one employee from one county to another. There evi- 
dently was no opposition or any sane judgment displayed and therefore 
it became a law and I would say that this has China beat a mile. 

Why shouldn't there be a federal law dealing with agencies that 
place nothing but labor, and by the way, this work will be handled by 
the Government Agencies, and also have a law covering the higher grade 
agencies placing executives, teachers, etc. 

Many of you men do not know the difference between the high grade 
agency and the labor agency. Laws today control the two classes. 

You Efficiency Men are in a new business which has been much mis- 
understood. The reason Efhciency Men are i-equired is to control the 
human element. We deal with the finding and placing of this human ele- 
ment and are an enormous factor, which is evidenced by the splenditi 
plans that are being -can-ied out by our own Government. The f<r. t con- 



200 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

sideration to build ships was men. It is men, men, men. But it is to be 
hoped that if the proposed bill goes through, and it should, which will cost 
us $750,000 the coming year and a million and a half the next year for 
the maintenance of Government Agencies, we shall have a practical em- 
ployment man at the head of that work. 

THE TOASTMASTER: The next speaker on the program is Mr. 
Montague Ferry, who has been conducting investigations for the Emer- 
gency Fleet Corporation on the Great Lakes of which he will tell us some- 
thing. Mr. Ferry. 

MR. FERRY: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

My subject has nothing directly to do with the work of the Emer- 
gency Fleet Corporation, although I propose to draw some examples from 
that work to illustrate my points. Mr. Craig has covered at some length 
the question of shipping man-power, with particular reference to execu- 
tives. My talk will deal almost altogether with a different kind of man- 
power, the man that handles the shovel, swings the hammer, and is gen- 
erally called a laborer. We all know that when through war or some other 
circumstance we remove from the United States of America a certain 
number of men, something must be done to replace those men in the in- 
dustries they have left. There has been a good deal of talk in the previous 
meetings of this Joint Association regarding substitution, that is, putting 
women to work where men have been before. That is one means of meet- 
ing the emergency. Another means is greater efficiency in methods, pro- 
cesses and elimination of waste, and still another means is the inaugura- 
tion or the implanting, if you please, of what is generally known as team 
spirit in this country. Team spirit is an intangible thing, except to the 
French, who are very much more expressive, I believe, than we are. They 
have two words that really mean team spirit. One is morale, which we 
see very frequently in reports from the front ; the other is esprit de corps, 
which is not so frequently seen, but which has somewhat the same mean- 
ing. In our language team spirit is about as close as we can come to 
the thing that has engaged a great deal of study and attention from me 
and which I believe will engage a great deal more study and attention 
from efficiency men and factory men in general in the near future. 

We have all seen the college team. We know that the college football 
team is one of the finest examples of drive energy that could be cited. 
We know that it is not always the most powerful team, as far as beef 
and brawn is concerned, that wins the game. We have seen men taken 
out of football games crying and fighting because they wanted to stay in 
and do their part. We have seen prairie baseball teams and football teams 
that have no relation to college, where the same spirit has been in evidence, 
and by that I am trying to prove to you that this matter of team spirit 
has not necessarily anything to do with the institutions of higher learn- 
ing. It is there, but it is also out on the sand lots, wherever men and 
boys play. 

There is another example of team spirit. I do not believe we need 
to dwell on it to any serious extent, but it is the kind of team spirit that 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 201 

is going" to make the German autocrat awfully sorry that he monkeyed 
with the American buzz-saw. (Applause.) 

It is that same spirit that made a bunch of American engineers, pri- 
marily not fighting: men. sail into a bunch of Germans greatly superior in 
number with anything they could get their hands on and if they could not 
get a shovel or a pick they used their feet and their fists. Americans got 
a reputation right there that I think will satisfy all doubts on both sides 
of the fence as to team spirit in the American trenches. 

If this team spirit, as I have chosen to call it for lack of a more 
expressive term or better definition, is so powerful a thing in college ath- 
letics, in the trenches, and in the sand lots, it seems that it should be 
possible to inaugurate and instill at least a measure of that spirit in in- 
dustry. I realize perfectly well that industry has to do with money, and 
that while all of us love money, we cannot possibly become sentimentally 
interested in anything for which we are paid. That is the accepted atti- 
tude, the general attitude toward anything resembling an attempt to in- 
augurate or instill team spirit in industry. You will understand that this 
question really is an entirely diflPerent thing from welfare work, effi- 
ciency, employment methods — more intangible of course, but still a very 
big factor. As I see it, the employment methods, that is the question Mr. 
Craig has spoken of. getting the right man by questions and analysis, 
fitting him" into the 1ob for which he is best suited: the question of medi- 
cal supervision, seeing to it that the men are kept in the best possible 
physical condition ; the question of welfare work in general as it is ordi- 
narily understood; all these thinjrs have to do with contentment. They 
make a man contented. Thp efl^ciencv man, the efl^ciency expert, if you 
please, comes in and shows that man how the thing can best be done. He 
educates that man in his work. Each of the two and a great many other 
specialized branches have a very definite function in business, but none 
of them cet the sort of spirit that is so in evidence in teams in athletics, 
and I mierht say in the trenches. 

Mr. Piez of the Shir)r>inc!' Board recently remarked that if a man in 
the shipping yard gave his full eflFort to the work he would build in the 
course of one year sixteen tons of shipping. He stated that at the present 
writing the way the men were workincr now each man was building ap- 
proximately nine tons of shinpin^r. Now. Mr. Piez was not promulgating 
anything very new there. Men interested in the labor question have said 
for some years at least that the average working man gave approxi- 
mately sixty per cent of his effort and that forty per cent was pure waste. 
They account for this in diflferent ways, one of the principal ways being 
to say that organized labor prevents its men from givincr full effort lest 
there be fewer jobs. This may or may not be a good alibi. The fact re- 
mains that in the average office where the employes are not unionized the 
percentag-es of sixty and forty would probably show a worse ratio, so 
that while T hold no brief for the union in everv case, T think that it is 
a little bit out of line to say that the union is entirely responsible for the 
slacker. You can well imagine that this man of team spirit would have an 
enormous effect in cuttine down this labor waste, this withheld effort, as 
it is called. The most mdical, the most optimistic idealist would not hope 



202 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

to get one hundred per cent effort, but assuming that in the case of the 
ship yards as a case in point, we could take those men and get them to 
give us, instead of sixty per cent of their effort, which according to Mr. 
Piez is what the yards are getting, supposing we could get them to give 
us seventy per cent. Stop and think for a mom.ent how much faster and 
how much more accurately the submarines would have to work if that 
were the case. Small percentages in a situation of this sort mean big 
things. 

Now, lest I be placed in the catalogue of pure theorists and idealists, 
and I have no doubt that the thought is running through many of your 
minds that this is a lovely dream_, a pleasant thought, but lest you put me 
too far into that catalogue I want to cite a few cases where this team 
spirit has been actually created in industry, in institutions that are run 
primarily to make money for their proprietors. 

In one plant consisting of about at the present time, I believe, seven 
hundred and fifty people, men and women both, they had a situation two 
years ago where department heads got most of their fun out of life fight- 
ing with each other, with their subordinates, and more or less encourag- 
ing bickering among their employes. That institution at that time pre- 
sented a soft mark — pardon the vernacular — for any unprincipled agi- 
tator that came along. 

The team spirit idea was introduced into this plant about two years 
ago in a modest and inexpensive way. In two years it has not cost the 
institution over seven hundred dollars in cash. The things done were ex- 
tremely simple and represented more thought and care and patience than 
they did expense, and yet at the end of two years we have the spectacle 
of that institution going through a hurricane of labor trouble without any- 
body walking: out of their doors. We see their production raised : we see 
a spirit in the plant where the employes themselves have come into the 
habit of calling it the family: we see better merchandise; and we see a 
very remarkable elimination of waste. As I say, there was no mathemati- 
cal certainty, no cut and dried formula there, no slide rule work. There 
may have been science mixed up in it, but the people who did the work 
did not consider it that. It was hum^an — hum.an stuff from first to last. 
For instance, in order to overcome a very desperate feeling of antasronism 
between office and factory which started with the heads and run through 
the ranks, there was organized in that institution a bowling league. The 
spectacle there after the first two or three months when the nev.mess and 
the strangeness had worn off was not only the men, the teams from office 
and factory competing on a very friendly basis, but through this little 
underground stuff, which v.^as one of the main parts of the scheme, the 
families of the men coming do^\Ti as gallery. The wives of the men in 
the office mingled with the wives of men in the factory. That social line 
was wiped out to such a beautiful extent that you could not find it with 
a microscope after six months of that sort of treatment. Today those 
people are a fine example of team spirit. It sticks out eveiywhere you go 
in the plant. And as a culmination, you might say as a mark of confi- 
dence, as an appreciation on the part of the management that those people 
are heart and soul with the institution, thej^ are, according to Mr. Roger 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 203 



Babson, whose authority I am willing to accept, one of the first if not 
the first institution in the country to adopt a plan that has proved exceed- 
ingly successful in England, commonly known as the Workshop Council 
Plan, I believe. I am not authority personally for the success of that plan 
in England. I do not know just hov/ far it has gone, but I do know that 
in this institution it has worked to perfection. 

I want to detail that a little more because I think you will hear a 
great deal of it in time to come. Each department elects two employes as 
representatives to sit on a board consisting of about thirty people. Those 
thirty people take up and settle all grievances of workmen or employes. If 
the representative of the individual who feels himself cheated, aggrieved 
or ill-treated can settle the case on the ground, he does it ; if not he can be 
forced to bring it before this Board. 

Just to illustrate the results of the work that went before the for- 
mation of this Board and the reason for the employer's confidence in start- 
ing the Board, I might say that in approximately six months' time there 
has been but one decision made by this employes' Board to which the man- 
agement themselves could take any exception whatsoever, and in speakinsr 
of that decision they are very frank in saying that they are not altos'ether 
certain that that decision was not right. I will admit freely that without 
previous preparation a plan of this kind might work havoc, but I am 
telling you the facts as they are. 

In another institution which has nlayed everything for team spirit, 
and a very strongly imionized institution, whereas the fir^t instance was 
an open shon, the men were called out on strike. They told their business 
agent that thev preferred to talk it over with the "old m?n." as they 
called him. before thev went out on strike, and the net result was they 
told their delegate that they would not strike : that they had been treated 
pretty well and they had a little work on hand and they decided to stick 
around awhile and see what happened. They were threatened v/ith loss 
of their union cards, but they stuck to their original intention. They did 
not strike, they are still union men and still carry cards. 

In another case, a certain large institution that employs a con- 
siderable number of men who belong to a very, very strong union, a 
union which has things mostly its own way. This institution has used 
the bonus system, which neither of the two preceding cases know any- 
thing of, but these people have used the bonus system and a lot of 
human stuff with it, and their men did not want to go out. They knew 
they were going- to lose some bonus and they were goinc to have a lot 
of readjustment, and as a result of their loyalty to that one institution 
they actually prevented a general strike of the union in something like 
ten or a dozen other institutions. In other words, the nbilitv of one 
management to handle its men right carried the lood for the whole 
industry of which they were a part. 

Now, the last example of team spirit is something that took place 
in a ship yard last winter. We all know how severe the winter was, 
and in one case at least there were four feet of ice in the slip: the boat 
that was ready to be launched was not equipped with skates, and there 



204 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

was another boat waiting to be put on that particular berth. The natural 
thing to do was to cut the ice out, and they did it with axes, picks, dyna- 
mite, ice saws and a crane to lift the dipper out on to the bank. The 
significant thing is that the men themselves working in that ice and in 
a temperature a great deal below zero had to be ordered off the work, 
and when they launched that boat on schedule they had every bit as 
much pride in their achievement as any football team or any baseball 
team or any unpaid team that could be imagined. 

Now, there are no two cases where this work has been inaugurated 
where the methods are exactly the same. There is no cut and dried 
formula. You cannot do the thing with a slide rule. It never will be 
done that way. Just as the human element differs, just as there are 
so many different phases of the human character, so every case we run 
into in an industrial plant is different from every other case. Some of 
the things that have the great effect — and I am going to just hit the 
high spots so to speak — are the result of competition, both within and 
without the plant. Good natured rivalry among plants build up a certain 
team spirit for the plants at large. I do not attempt to explain that. 
But the thing has happened too often to allow of argument. Another 
thing, and of course it is perfectly obvious that where a team from this 
plant is playing a team from that plant over there, there is rivalry be- 
tween the two plants which naturally leads to more team spirit and 
loyalty on the part of the teams to their own plant. 

Another thing is the question of creating interest on the part of 
the men in the product. Pretty near any product if it is properly analyzed 
can be made interesting. It goes to all corners of the world; that it is 
this, that and the other thing; it has a certain function to perform. 
That men that make that product should be told those things. Give them 
a chance to use their imaginations. Let them think while they are doing 
this work why they are doing it, what use that product is to be put to. 
It helps a lot; we all know it. 

Another factor, which is more or less common, I think a good many 
plants have it, is the plant newspaper properly run. If that newspaper 
is handled correctly and has a certain definite purpose, that is, to create 
team spirit and loyalty by sane, human, everyday, honest-to-goodness, 
man-to-man methods, it is a great factor, but you can never expect to 
get a plant paper to be any marvel of literary perfection, because the 
two don't go together. The minute you get a fine paper, that is, a fine 
paper from a literary standpoint, it is not couched in the terms that 
workingmen can understand or want to understand. He wants the kind 
of stuff that comes straight from the shoulder without a great deal of 
varnish or garnish or lace, or anything of that kind, and it must of course 
ring absolutely true. 

I have used most of my time. I just want to add this : As I said 
before, this proposition is sufficiently tangible, but it is hard for the 
average man to tackle it. He says, "Fine business if we can do it, but we 
cannot get our fingers on it." As a matter of fact, the thing is remark- 
ably simple. It is about ninety-nine per cent will to do, the desire to 
get the spirit. That is about ninety-nine per cent of the answer. Prac- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 205 



tically any man if his will to do is in the right shape, if he is willing 
to use his heart as well as his head, can get that result. But there are 
too few men, too few managers, too few production managers, too few 
general managers, and too few proprietors that have the imagination 
to tackle it, and it is not a hard thing to do. 

The three biggest factors, I think, generally accepted nowadays, of 
waste in industry are labor turnover, which Mr. Craig covered very 
clearly ; strikes, with which we are all familiar, and this question of with- 
held effort to which I have referred. 

I just want you to think for a minute of the effect of team spirit 
as I have outlined it on these three recognized big factors in economic 
waste. If a man wants to win, if he wants to do the best work, if his 
heart is in it as well as his hands and his mind, there is not going to 
be any forty per cent, of withheld effort, any more than there is forty 
per cent, of withheld effort when he is out there playing football, or 
when he is out playing baseball, or when he is out rowing a boat, or when 
he is over there fighting in the trenches. We do not hear of any with- 
held effort in the trenches, not by a great deal. It is a thing to think 
about principally, and if I could feel that here and now I had sowed just 
one little germ in minds older, more experienced and keener than my 
own, if I had inspired some man or some men to think about this thing 
until they got the nerve to go out and perfect it, and think about it as 
though it were a tangible, definite thing you could get your fingers on, 
I would feel mighty well repaid and feel that I justified your attention. 
I thank you. (Applause.) 

THE TOASTMASTER: I am sure we all feel very much grati- 
fied to have a thing that we recognize generally, given such importance 
and presented in such a forceful and clear way. The last paper of the 
evening will given by Mr. Lew R. Palmer, Acting Commissioner Pennsyl- 
vania Department of Labor and Industry. His subject is, ''Pennsylvania 
Plan for Meeting After-War Conditions." 

MR. PALMER : Ladies and Gentlemen : When the original program 
came to me there were four speakers on it, and the first duty of the 
last speaker in every instance is brevity. This is my printed, written 
address. I did not write it, and therefore I feel unprejudiced and un- 
biased. I am privileged to say that it is well worth reading. There are 
some twenty pages. The title is "Pennsylvania's Plan for Meeting After- 
War Conditions." My assistant, the Auditor of the Department under 
my direction, compiled some information as regards our activities in 
line with the work that you ladies and gentlemen have been discussing 
here this afternoon. I will just run through the summary of some of 
the phases; he has divided the subject into some five or six phases. 

The first one covers a description of our Emergency PubHc Works 
Commission that has been established to investigate and to relieve un- 
employment if such should develop after the war. This Commission is 
composed of the Governor, the Auditor General, State Treasurer, and 
the Commission of Labor and Industry, and is backed by an appropria- 
tion of $40,000 with more to follow, if necessary. 



20 6 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

Number 2. A Commission of Public Safety, an office composed of 
the Governor, our military man, our Adjutant General, the Auditor 
General, and State Treasurer. This is backed by an initial appropria- 
tion of $2,000,000 with a promise of as much more as we need. 

Number 3. The above Commission have appointed a State Committee 
on Public Safety in connection with the other State Councils of Defense. 
This includes a large personnel of public citizens constantly active in 
promoting war aims of the Nation. 

Number 4. A Commonwealth Relief Committee has recently been 
appointed by the Governor, including as Chairman the Adjutant General, 
the Commissioner of Health and the Commissioner of Labor and Industry. 

Number 5. A State Committee for reconstruction, re-education and 
placement in industries of Pennsylvania's crippled through war service. 

The Department of Labor and Industry has already accomplished 
considerable results along the phase that they are directly interested in, 
that is, in the employment side. A questionnaire, which some of you are 
familiar with, has been sent out to thirty thousand of our industrial 
leaders and managers throughout the State of Pennsylvania, and we have 
in response already catalogued and card-indexed some 30,710 open places, 
places open to our Pennsylvania soldiers when they need such places after 
the hostilities are over. 

But we may have our plans, we may have our laws, we may have 
our unlimited resources, we may have our mighty armies afield and afloat, 
but without the purpose, the spirit to win, the war is lost. But thank 
God, the spirit of '76 still lives in Pennsylvania. (Applause.) Nine 
million of our liberty loving people stand behind the Nation's flag, and 
of those nine million there are three million war workers, and never 
before has the manpower of that old rock-ribbed State been of such vital 
moment in sustaining the very life of the Nation, for on the products 
of her mines and mills depends in no small measure the success or failure 
of this great world war, depends the life or death of that liberty for 
which our forefathers so freely shed their blood at Valley Forge and 
Gettysburg. To this, our mighty industrial army now toiling in the 
trenches of labor, led by our stalwart captains of industry, comes a call, 
a call from those four million already slain, a call from heart-broken 
Belgium, a call from desolated Serbia, a call from bruised and bleading 
France, ''Have we lived, fought and died in vain? Will you who still 
breathe the free air of America stand firm, for through your united eflfort 
and strength can we, even in death, still win?" Yes, we of Pennsylvania 
have heard the call, and this is our pledge: These same dead shall not 
have died in vain. And democracy shall ever be privileged to exist un- 
molested by malignant purpose of a militant autocracy, saturated with 
the accumulated crimes of the darkest and most barbaric ages, and here 
is to the day when that predatory Potsdam gang shall surrender its claim 
to divine right or else be wiped clean from the face of a regenerated world. 

"Pennsylvania's plan for meeting after war conditions" is an er- 
roneous title for my remarks if it conveys the impression that Penn- 
sylvania is not today endeavoring constantly to meet ''during %var" condi- 
tions and planning unceasingly to that end. Those plans while embracing 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 207 



practically every condition that can be born of this great war war, center 
mainly in the Department of Labor Industry in Pennsylvania. Unusual 
industrial conditions are already upon us and, while coping with them 
daily, we are developing a program which, it is hoped, will automatically 
culminate in a plan to promote the welfare of labor and of industry even 
when hostilities cease in the field and the men now under arms return eith- 
er physically handicapped or sound to take up again the tasks of industry. 
The economic conditions that may follow the cessation of hostilities 
and the problems to be met, along purely economic lines, when reconstruc- 
tion succeeds destruction. I shall not attempt to predict nor discuss at 
this time. I may in passing, however, point out that Pennsylvania is pre- 
paring to meet actual conditions after the war whether those conditions 
produce unusually active industries or a stagnation in industrial fields. If 
what might be called the unexpected occurs and a period of unemployment 
follows the war, Pennsyvania is in a measure prepared to cope with just 
such an emergency by an Act passed by the last legislature and approved 
by the Governor, July 25, 1917, creating an Emergency Public Works 
Commission, composed of the Governor, the Auditor General, the State 
Treasurer, and the Commissioner of Labor and Industry. By that legis- 
lation, it is the duty of the Industrial Board of the Department of Labor 
and Industry, in co-operation with the various bureaus of that Depart- 
ment, to determine when a period of extraordinary unemployment, caused 
by industrial depression, exists. The Act calls for extension of public 
works of the State as shall be best adapted to supply increased oppor- 
tunities for advantageous public labor during such periods of temporary 
unemployment. It is, further provided that no person shall be given em- 
ployment, in such public works, who shall not be a citizen of the United 
States and who shall not have been a resident of the State of Pennsyl- 
vania for a period of six months prior to his or her application for state 
employment. As a nucleus for the fund necessary to carry on such 
acitivities, the Legislature of 1917 appropriated forty thousand dollars. 

I merely cite this legislation in passing to show how carefully Penn- 
sylvania is preparing to meet the needs of labor even in times of de- 
pression. However, do not misunderstand my reference to that measure; 
I am by no means predicting an era of industrial depression after this war. 

Pennsylvania as a state is meeting in a big way every emergency 
condition arising within her boundries during the actual progress of the 
war. The Legislature, in session in 1917, appropriated $2,000,000 to be 
expended by a Commission of Public Safety and Defense, inckiding the 
Governor, the Adjutant General, the Auditor General and the State 
Treasurer and which Commission is charged with the duty of iM-oparinp; 
for the defense of the Commonwealth, the safety of its people and tlie 
protection of their property; and aiding the Government of the United 
States in protecting and defending the people and property of the National 
Government. 

Governor Brumbaugh, at the outbreak of the war, appointed a Com- 
mittee of Public Safety for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, whicii 
Committee includes several hundrod public si)ii-iled men capabK^ of lead- 
ing in varied activities essential I'oi- the welfare of the people of the Com- 



208 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITION S 

monwealth during a period of war. This State Committee of Public 
Safety may be considered as the active body operating under direction 
of the Commission of Public Safety and Defense created by Act of As- 
sembly. Through fifteen separate departments this State Committee of 
Public Safety has awakened the people of Pennsylvania to vivid realization 
of the necessity of furtherance of war aims of the Nation. The legislative 
enactment, creating the Commission of Public Safety and Defense and the 
appointment by the Governor of the Committee of Public Safety, may how- 
ever, be classed as a State plan operating to meet every emergency that 
may arise during the war. The fifteen separate working departments 
into which the Committee of Public Safety is divided are co-operating 
with the regular governmental departments of both the State and Nation 
in promoting every work of war from food conservation to solution of 
labor problems, and providing home police protection. 

An enumeration of the Departments of the State Public Safety Com- 
mittee is, 1, finance; 2, publicity; 3, legislaltion ; 4, allied bodies; 5, 
medicine, sanitation and hospitals ; 6, civic relief ; 7, food supply ; 8, mater- 
ials; 9, plants; 10, motors and motor trucks; 11, civilian service and labor; 
12, military service; 13, naval service; 14, guards, police inspection; 15, 
railroads, electrical railways and motors, highways and waterways. Each 
of these departments is headed by a director a public spirited citizen of 
importance in the line of work with which his department has to deal. 
It may be observed that the program of this well financed and direct- 
ed State Commission and Public Safety Committee co-ordinated with the 
programs of the governmental departments of the Commonwealth of 
Pennsylvania will contribute towards the final evolving of processes and 
methods to grant against dangerous impact to the economic, industrial 
or social structure of the State at the close of the war. 

Two vital problems that must be met, during the war, and following 
it, are : First, assimilating properly in industry women performing work 
heretofore considered as strictly the tasks of men, and second the re- 
constructing, training and placing, at suitable tasks in industry, members 
of our armed forces returning from service in disabled condition. Women 
are performing and will even further perform wonderful service in aid- 
ing to win the war. They are bravely assuming duties for which they 
have in this country, been considered heretofore unadapted. 

Today, during the progress of the war they are working under 
emergency conditions. As long as the war continues, we may expect a 
continuance of heavy demands for production of munitions by women, 
in conflict with inherently proper demands for conservation of the health 
of these women for the present as well as for future generations. It is : 
immediate production of munitions vs. the future welfare of the people of 
this country. The one is immediately vital to the nation; the other is just 
as vital although its immediateness is not so apparent. The solution lies 
in properly choosing women for the various industrial tasks so that their 
strength may not be overtaxed, that they may not be devitalized by too 
long hours ; that even their clothing may be designed with a view to safe- 
guarding them from accidents and eliminating unnecessary body strain; 
that they may be employed in healthful surroundings where every 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 209 



mechanical safeguard, every facility for adequate light, ventilation and 
sanitation is provided. 

The objection may be here interposed that a proper and scientific 
distribution of available male labor in this country would render needless, 
for the present employment of women in industry to tasks heretofore 
considered as strictly men's work. Such objection is probably well found- 
ed but the fact remains that women are entering and have already in- 
dustrial plants in tasks unusual to women. This has occurred in the ab- 
sence of such scientific distribution of male labor and in the absence 
of transfer of men from work that women could perform to heavier tasks 
in industry. 

The extremely complex and preplexing problem of women in industry 
is, today, in Pennsylvania, being considered by the Industrial Board of the 
Department of Labor and Industry and by the Woman's Division of the 
Bureau of Inspection of that Department. The Woman's Law in Penn- 
sylvania has not been let down in any degree on account of the war, 
although women are every day entering industry in greater numbers. 
Even at this time women may not be employed in manufacturing esta- 
blishments in Pennsylvania before six o'clock in the morning nor after 
ten o'clock at night. They may not work more than ten hours in any one 
day nor may they work more than fifty hours in any one week, they may 
not work more than six hours without a lunch period and that lunch 
period must be forty-five minutes unless they work less than eight hours 
a day in which case it may be thirty minutes. That law is not only 
on the statute books, but it is being enforced by one hundred inspectors 
of the Department of Labor and Industry in all sections of Pennsylvania. 

This great problem as well as virtually every other great problem 
concerning labor and industry in Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, 
centers ultimately in the Department of Labor and Industry. 

Through the Bureau of Inspection of the Department are enforced 
the woman's laws and laws safeguarding all workers. 

The Division of Hygiene and Engineering — including physicians, 
chemists, and engineers — investigates and reports upon the more technical 
and specialized problems affecting the health of men and women workers 
and comprises an expert consulting branch of the Bureau of Inspection. 
Its findings, presented to the Industrial Board, aid in the preparation of 
regulations aflfecting safety and health of workers in the detailed processes 
and features of industry. 

The Industrial Board, empowered to frame these codes and reguhi- 
tions, to make investigations and to give rulings on industry and laboY, 
includes the Commissioner of the Department as Chairman, a represent- 
ative of employers, a representative of employes, a citizen and a woman. 
Twenty-eight seperate codes for safety have already been formuhxted by 
the Board. The codes governing the manufacture of explosives and nitro 
and amido compounds have especial value at this time. 

The Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration is an arm of the Depart- 
ment devoted exclusively and active constantly in endeavoring to avoid 
or amicably settle dispute between employers and employes. 

There is probably no Bureau in the Department of Labor and In- 



210 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

dustry of Pennsylvania upon which more responsibihty rests than upon 
the Bureau of Mediation and Arbitration. As long as disputes occur 
between employers and employes the need of a third and neutral agent 
to mediate the differences — and preferably a state agency — is essential. 
Today is no time for even temporary cessation in the production of muni- 
tions through misunderstandings between employer and employe. But re- 
member, both sides must always play fair. 

Let me quote for you a recent message to the Pennsylvania Depart- 
ment of Labor and Industry written from ''somewhere in France" by 
Major John Price Jackson whose place I occupy as Commissioner of Labor 
and Industry for Pennsylvania while he is today representing Pennsyl- 
vania in the battle lines of Europe on leave of absence. Major Jackson 
sends this appeal : 

"I hope for the sake of the Democracy of the World and our boys at 
the front, that the employes and the employers of Pennsylvania with your 
energetic aid are taking such a broad minded and patriotic stand that 
cessation of work through strikes is a thing of the past. I appreciate fully 
that this requires as much, or maybe even more sacrifice from employers 
than from employes. The employer who does not deal generously with 
the employes in these times of high cost of living, and then berates his 
employes because they strike and calls them unpatriotic is a very bad 
citizen, while the employers who demand, merely because they have the 
pbwer, more than is just, are equally to be condemned." 

It is, however, a pleasure for me to say that the employers and em- 
ployes in the great industrial State of Pennsylvania are today patriotical- 
ly meeting the tasks put before them and strikes or lockouts are, at 
present, comparatively rare in our great Commonwealth. 

I have, in a measure, digressed from outlining to you the activities 
of the various branches of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and 
Industry and the place they occupy in Pennsylvania's war program. 

The Bureau of Employment has established free employment offices 
in twelve cities of Pennsylvania and in this great work is co-ordinated 
with the Department of Civilian Service and Labor of the State Publilc 
Safety Committee, — which I have previously described, — and with the 
Federal Department of Labor. 

As an example of the work that the Bureau of Employment is doing 
I may say that it has placed in suitable employment, in the industries of 
Pennsylvania, approximately 10,000 workers each month of this year. 
During the month of February alone the Bureau of Employment placed 
147 workers on Pennsylvania farms. In the office of the clearing house 
of the Bureau of Employment at Harrisburg there are, at this instant, 
extensive card files showing accurately where more than 30,000 soldiers 
and sailors, handicapped physically from wounds or disease in war service 
may obtain employment in Pennsylvania's manufacturing establishments. 
On that subject I shall say more later. I refer to it here merely to present 
to you the great work that the Bureau of Employment of the Depart- 
ment of Labor and Industry is performing in this time of war. 

The necessary expansion of this Bureau to meet war conditions is 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 211 



developing it so that it will be of greater value to workers and employers 
after the war than it has ever been before. 

A Bureau of Municipalities in the Department of Labor and Industry, 
as its name implies, is concerned with the welfare of cities and boroughs 
and was established to collect and disseminate, among the municipalities 
of Pennsylvania, information tending to bring about standardization of 
methods of municipal administration and be otherwise helpful to the 
boroughs and cities of the state. This Bureau is at this time stimulating 
interest in city planning, — on projects to be consummated after the 
war, — and is also actively aiding in solving present day problems of 
housing in the more congested industrial centers. A planning engineer 
from this Bureau is today with the national government, on leave of 
absence from the Department working on the solution of industrial 
housing problems confronting the nation. 

The Bureau of Statistics and Information and the Bureau of Work- 
men's Compensation are also important branches of the Department of 
Labor and Industry and compile all reports of industrial accidents, 
classifying those reports to determine the relative hazards of industrial 
operations and to make certain that workmen's compensation is paid 
promptly to workers killed in industry or disabled for periods exceeding 
fourteen days. The legal, or what might be called the judicial,, ad- 
ministration of the Workmen's Compensation Law comes under a Board 
of four members including the Commissioner of Labor and Industry. 

In this connection I may say that accident prevention work is by 
no means a lesser activity of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and 
Industry. Every fatal and serious industrial accident is personally in- 
vestigated by inspectors of a Division of Accident Investigation and in- 
structions are immediately issued to prevent the reoccurrence of such 
accident. It may be accurately stated that accident prevention is a pri- 
mary purpose of every Bureau and Division of the Department of Labor 
and Industry. Masses of safety literature are issued from the Department 
each year to supplement the personal activities of the inspectors who en- 
force the laws for safety and the regulations of the Industrial Board. 
Some idea of the magnitude of this work of accident prevention in Penn- 
sylvania may be realized when I say with deepest regret that in Pennsyl- 
vania industries more than 3,000 workers were killed last year and 
approximately 250,000 others were injured. Compensation awards and 
payments in Pennsylvania during the year 1917 amounted to more than 
$7,000,000. 

Among the total number of compensation agreements approved in 
the Department of Labor and Industry during 1917 there were 182 for 
hands lost; 52 for arms lost; 71 for feet lost; 49 for legs lost and 447 for 
eyes lost. Increasing that record by the number of workers otherwise 
seriously disabled by industrial accidents, one can realize that the present 
project, of rehabilitating men crippled in war service, may be advantage- 
ously continued as a public endeavor after the war, for the rehabilitation 
of our workers maimed in industry. In Tact, rehabilitation of our in- 
dustrial cripples should even now be considered with the rehabilitation 
of war cripples. 



212 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



CATASTROPHE RELIEF. 

Another phase of Pennsylvania's plan to meet conditions arising 
during the war is the preparation for relief in the event of any catastrophe 
occurring within its limits through explosion, fire or other cause. I wish 
to call your attention to the fact that Governor Brumbaugh has named 
as a committee to prepare for relief in catastrophes, the Adjutant General 
of the State, the Commissioner of Health and the Commissioner of Labor 
and Industry, as the heads of three State departments through whose 
combined facilities and supplies there are readily available, day and night, 
canvas shelter and food supplies for at least one thousand persons, — (these 
supplies can be delivered at any point of the State within a comparatively 
few hours) — the names and locations of almost two thousand physicians 
and surgeons, several hundred nurses, officials of every municipality in the 
State, the one hundred inspectors of the Department of Labor and In- 
dustry with six hundred auxiliary inspectors of boilers and elevators. 
These forces are in addition to the forces of State Police and the Reserve 
Militia. 

RECONSTRUCTION, RE-EDUCATION AND PLACEMENT IN IN- 
DUSTRY OF CRIPPLED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS. 

Pennsylvania was, I believe, the first State to co-operate 
definitely and actively with the office of the surgeon general 
in the plan to rehabilitate crippled soldiers and sailors and to 
aid in placing them at suitable industrial tasks. Last fall. Major Mock 
came to Harrisburg to speak before employers, employes, and re- 
presentatives of the State and National Governments in the Fourth 
Annual Welfare and Efficiency Conference conducted by the Pennsylvania 
Department of Labor and Industry. That conference is virtually an open 
forum for the advancement of thought on safety and health in industry 
as well as on similar subjects vital to employers and employes. The 
arguments of Major Mock at that conference made it obvious to the 
officials of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry that the 
Department could perform a great work in Pennsylvania through its 
Bureau of Employment and Division of Hygiene and Engineering by 
making wide inquiry through the thirty thousand industrial establish- 
ments of the State to determine where suitable employment might be 
obtained for soldiers and sailors crippled in war service but reconstructed 
and re-educated by the National authorities. In January of this year 
thirty thousand printed questionnaires, of which the one I exhibit is a 
copy, were sent to employers in all sections of the State. 

The front cover page of this folder form of questionnaire presented 
a letter to the employers of Pennsylvania, outlining the aims of the govern- 
ment in reconstructing and re-educating crippled soldiers and sailors for 
properly selected tasks in industry. This letter further pointed out that 
it is a patriotic duty of employers of Pennsylvania to give thought to the 
matter of providing places in their plants where handicapped persons 
might be employed. 

The main questionnaire appeared on the inside pages of the folder. 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 213 

It requested employers to indicate the number of handicapped men they 
could employ. It further pointed out that each disabled soldier or sailor will 
be equipped by the government with every suitable appliance to bring his 
efficiency to a maximum and that he will receive the necessary treatment 
and training to adapt him for selected employment. This questionnaire des- 
ignated in the column at the left of the page, twenty-one general classes of 
disability which might handicap the soldier or sailor when the time came to 
place him in industrial work. The designated disabilities range from 
loss of one or both of the upper extremities, in full or in part; stiffness 
of upper extremities, in full or in part; loss of one or both lower ex- 
tremities, in full or in part; blindness of one eye or both eyes, deafness 
of one ear or both ears, loss of speech, repulsive facial disfigurements, 
hernia and general health impairment which would prevent heavy manual 
labor. 

The column on the questionnaire adjoining the disability column was 
left blank in each instance in order that the type of work or machine 
operation considered for each disabled applicant could be designated by 
the employer. The next column provided blank spaces for the employer 
to indicate the number of each class of positions open for handicapped 
workers. The final column at the right gave spaces for any remarks. 

The back cover page presented a questionnaire asking employers to 
designate handicapped workers now in their employ, the tasks they were 
performing and the history of each case as to sex, age when disability 
occurred, education or training leading to present employment and similar 
data. This questionnaire was for the purpose of ascertaining positions 
now held by disabled men in the State of Pennsylvania. 

When the complete questionnaire form was sent to Pennsylvania 
employers, it was with the thought that functional rehabilitation of the 
injured soldiers and sailors and the occupational reeducation and training 
for the old qr the new position would be performed in every case by the 
national authorities. It was believed that the re-employment of the re- 
constructed man was the factor of the problem in which the Pennsylvania 
Department of Labor and Industry would be principally concerned. Of 
course, the degree of success attaining the solution of the whole problem 
demands a systematic and harmonious co-ordination of all related forces. 

When it was determined to send out this questionnaire, it was realized 
that it would fall on comparatively new soil. Employers as a class had 
probably given little thought to this important project. I firmly believe, 
however, that we have awakened and are further awakening Pennsylvania 
employers to a realization of this vital question in a way that will insure 
avoiding the mere shunting of crippled men into the byproduct occupa- 
tions of industry. 

It may be said that this questionnaire which designates only the 
general classes of disability and does not attempt to analyze specific opera- 
tions in the varied classes of industrial work is incomplete. I agree with 
that statement. This first questionnaire was purposely made inadequate 
to meet successfully and completely the requirements of a final intensive 
program for placing crippled men to the best and most efficient advantage 
in industry. Returns from this questionnaire, tabulated up to March 1st, 



214 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CNDITIONS 

indicated 30,710 potential placements for cripples in Pennsylvania indus- 
trial plants. When the complete replies to this questionnaire — and replies 
are still being received — are tabulated, the Bureau of Employment of the 
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry will have an accurate 
card index of plants in Pennsylvania where the managements have volun- 
tarily expressed a desire to employ men crippled in war service. The 
questionnaires already received have been classified according to industry, 
according to occupations offered for each class of disabled worker, and 
according to location of each plant. If, even at this time, the office of the 
surgeon general desired employment for men having lost both legs at the 
hip joint, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry could from 
its present records indicate forty-six places for such workers at tasks 
varying from baker to draftsman, glass cutter to bench hand machinists, 
reed and willow worker to sorter or weaver in a textile plant. 

But I am fully aware that even with the work already done in Pennsyl- 
vania, only the first step in the project of properly placing war cripples 
in industry has been begun. It may carry us only a short distance toward 
the ultimate solution of the problem, but the results of this questionnaire 
will finally be the basis from which further intensive and individual sur- 
veys as to occupations and cripples may be met. I feel that we have 
merely broken the ground and this questionnaire was sent out in its present 
form solely for that purpose. The occupational analysis to determine the 
physical requirements for the varied types of employment is a part of 
the broached program. I am overwhelmingly convinced that the sending 
of this questionnaire, even in its admittedly incomplete state, is a step in 
the right direction by thousands of responses that have been received 
from employers with letters of commendation and offers of support and 
assistance from great corporations, philanthropic organizations, civic and 
other associations even from beyond the boundaries of Pennsylvania. 

Pennsylvania has, however, within the last two weeks instituted as 
a Commonwealth the formulation of preliminary plans for the physical 
restoration, educational training and proper placement, in industry, of 
disabled Pennsylvanians returning from war service. 

Governor Brumbaugh, on March 19, appointed a State Committee 
comprising the Adjutant General as Chairman, the Commissioner of 
Health, the Commissioner of Labor and Industry and the Executive 
Secretary of the State Board of Education to study, in all its phases, the 
problem of rehabilitating crippled soldiers and sailors in Pennsylvania. 
The purpose of this committee is to place every facility and all its co- 
operative bureaus at the service of the national authorities engaged in 
this work. Such offers of co-operation have already been presented to 
the Surgeon General. The committee is planning, however, to make its 
co-operation in the entire project as complete as is possible in order first 
that it may be of maximum value to the national authorities and second 
that the State of Pennsylvania may be prepared, in a measure, to solve 
its own problem in the event of the work, by any reason, becoming de- 
centralized and devolving upon the several states. 

Under the direction of the Adjutant General, the head of the military 
of the Commonwealth, the work is being studied from its three principal 
angles. The State Department of Health, with its hospitals, tuberculosis 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 215 



sanatoria, dispensaries, staff and associated physicians and surgeons is 
considering the physical reconstruction problem. 

The State Board of Education, controlling a number of educational 
institutions equipped with dormitories, infirmaries, gymnasiums, labora- 
tories and vocational training equipments, admirably suited for training 
convalescent cripples, is considering the educational side of the problem. 
It may be added that well developed state divisions of vocational train- 
ing along industrial and agricultural lines are included in the state's 
present system. 

Efforts to induce college- students, in Pennsylvania, who abandoned 
their classes at the outbreak of war, to resume their college work at the 
end of their service have already been instituted through the Board of 
Education as a part of the work centering in the State Committee. The 
College and University Council, composed of presidents of Pennsylvania 
colleges, has been requested to draft regulations offering every induce- 
ment to students in the service to resume their college work after the 
war and to permit them to change their courses if they so desire as a 
result of their war experience. 

The work of the committee to be performed by the Department of 
Labor and Industry will be mainly along the lines I have previously out- 
lined as activities already begun by the Department and looking toward 
the placing of crippled soldiers at suitable tasks in industry. 

I have endeavored to discuss, in a general way, the many component 
parts of Pennsylvania's plan, which parts converging should aid in ac- 
complishing our common purpose of winning the war and solving the 
problems that arise at the close of hostilities. 

THE TOASTMASTER : Mr. Carlisle, I believe it was your privilege 
to welcome the guests at this meeting. I think it would be appropriate 
if you should pronounce a little valedictory. Mr. Carlisle, President of 
the Western Efficiency Society. 

MR. CARLISLE: A story has been going around for some time 
with which you are possibly familiar of the negro that they were en- 
deavoring to enlist in the cavalry, and who wished to be an infantryman, 
and they told him the various advantages, among which was that he should 
have a horse to ride. But he said he did not like the idea, and they 
said, "Why?" And he said, "Why, I tell you," he said, "when the Gen- 
eral gives the order to retreat I don't want to be bothered with no horse." 
(Laughter.) And so the time has come, not to retreat, but to advance 
again to our own works. The Convention, I am sure, of these two So- 
cieties has been considered a great success. I have been questioning quite 
a number and listening to comments, and they seem to be all favorable. 
We have, I believe, representatives with us from some twenty-seven 
States, coming from the Atlantic seaboard, the Pacific coast, from Texas, 
and the Southern States, and from Toronto, Canada, a gathering of the 
clans. When there was a gathering of the clans in old Scotland things 
began to happen, and the keynote, as I see tonight, and that we ought 
to take with us as we go, is that America's greatest problem is not, in 
spite of the fact of the things we hear, the manufacture of ships or 
munitions, or the various things necessary for the war, but it is making 



216 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

of men, stalwart men. Germany boasts of her Hindenburg and a few- 
like, and we have seen the result of that in the last few days with that 
efficiency, so-called, that has hurled hundreds of thousands of men, 
knowing not for what they are struggling, into the battle and to death, 
and I rejoice to think that if Germany has her Hindenburg in whom she 
is proud, America has her ten thousands Hindenburgs, every one of 
them as capable and in their positions behind the trenches here shall do 
as much to drive the vandal of Central Europe back again and finally 
subjugate him utterly. (Applause.) 

I wish it were in my power to give you a great inspiration. I wish 
it were in my power to fill you with a greater enthusiasm, if possible, 
than you now have, but such as it is, let us put our American citizen- 
ship above every pride in the world. I am glad to see the Frenchmen 
proud of France, a noble record; I am glad to see the British proud 
of that Empire upon which the sun never sets, but I rejoice among the 
pride of Nations that am_ong the newest, but I believe the greatest, is 
our own America, and it shall be demonstrated in the days to come by men 
who are your brothers and m;^' brothers, whether in the trenches in 
Europe or whether in the workshops at home. We shall show the world 
that they have no cause to be ashamed of their latest great ally in this 
struggle. 

So therefore, my friends, it having been my privilege to welcome 
you to this Convention, and drawing largely upon my imagination of 
what should be, to say that it was promising to be a fine thing, to be 
able to say in these concluding remarks that is has been more than 
we had even hoped for, and we have this day made a mark in this land 
that will not soon be forgotten. And so wherever you may go, remember 
the Queen City of the West, commonly called the Windy City; remember 
our railroads radiating in every direction; remember our millions of 
loyal citizens ; remember the greater resources that are at hand which we 
are utilizing; and remember that America's greatest product, regard- 
less of what shall be done in mighty things, shall be her men and women 
who are lineal and honorable descendan1:s of the men of '76 and 1812 
and '61, and I thank God tonight as we are here and as we have gone 
into this great struggle, our progenitors have no cause to be ashamed of 
their descendants, and that flag which has stood for freedom and 
democracy, and this land which has been a refuge for the oppressed of 
every nation shall a thousandfold be more so in the days to come, and 
the star of this great land of ours is only in its rising, and we have no 
idea the possibilities that lay before us, and you, gentlemen, and ladies 
that here tonight have the unestimable privilege of the making of those 
things. It is a great thing to enjoy privileges but it is infinitely greater 
to be among the pioneers who have blazed the way and made possible 
that which we have today. So let us go to our homes rejoicing in the 
opportunity that brought us together, with our hearts throbbing even 
stronger of loyalty and steadfastness of purpose, and let us determine 
that everj-thing that we have heard and ever\i:hing that we have seen 
shall enter into the warp and woof of our existence, and the word 
"efficiency'* shall not be a byword, but shall be a term of honorable men- 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 217 



tion, and we shall take it to our homes and our workshops, and this old 
America of ours of which we are so proud shall not only be the pride 
of ourselves and our children, but shall be the pride of the whole world 
who are looking to us today as their salvation and their savior in this 
time of trouble. I thank you. (Applause.) 

THE TOASTMASTER: We have been hearing a good deal about 
the great things that the country has been and is doing, but we have been 
told of course that it has made some mistakes on account of having to 
do things in an emergency way. That same thing applies to chairmen 
of meetings, and I brought in the valedictory before some remarks by 
Mr. Knoeppel that I would like very much if Mr. Knoeppel would make at 
this juncture. 

MR. KNOEPPEL: In writing there is such a thing as author's 
license, so in speaking tonight I shall avail myself of speaker's latitude. 
In other words, I am going to draw a little bit on my imagination as well 
as some facts in order to paint a picture of the industrial engineer of 
the future as I see him. In making that statement of fact, as I see it, 
it is based somewhat upon studies my organization is making on our 
east coast, the west coast and in Washington. Now, it is easy enough 
to criticise, and we have all had a chance and have been doing it. At the 
same time, I believe, when we do criticise, our criticism should be con- 
structive. There have been heard in Washington thousands of reasons 
why we were not doing things right. After about a million reasons had 
been totaled up I stopped counting. All over the country you hear the 
one phrase, lack of co-ordination. One of the big men in Washington 
said to me, **Why don't you fellows get together? You talk co-ordina- 
tion but there is no co-ordination. Now," he said, "every man has a more 
or less different set of principles, they have different divisions, different 
details. Now, before you can go to Washington as an industrial engineer 
and show us how to win this war from an industrial angle, doesn't it 
look as if you people should get together " His point was mighty well 
taken, and for this reason: Suppose a given piece of work is to be done 
such as building aircraft or making munitions. You bring from one 
successful plant its best brain, and you bring from another successful 
plant its best brain, dump them into Washington, and those men have 
never had an opportunity of working together. Each man has had 
experience and has learned to do things a certain way, and they do not 
know how to get results working another man's way. Therefore, if you 
have a board of conference or committee of ten members, each one strong, 
each one successful, each one doing things based on years of experience, 
you have essentially an enthusiastic bunch of men, and that is the reason 
why the co-ordinator ultimately must step in. Did a mechanical engineei* 
build this hotel? Did a civil engineer build it? Did an electrical engineer 
build it? No, they did not. Yet every feature of engineering is in this 
building, but it required an architect who knew all about certain phases, 
who could call a specialist on those things to design and construct and put 
this building in position where we all know it to be, one of the biggest and 
best hotels in the country. And so in the winning of the war we have got 
to have the industrial engineering profession on the job in a greater, 



218 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 



bigger, better way than it is today, and in some manner develop a plan 
of action that will enable us to turn college men and plant men quickly 
and throw them into shops and co-ordinate the work, and when we do that 
we will begin to put our punch over. That is so much for winning the 
war. One of these days we are going to wake up, and everybody will 
let one glad yell out of his system, 'The war is over," and it will be the 
allied nations that is the winner, whether the war lasts one year or ten 
years or generations more. But one day the war will be over. The men 
are all coming back. One of the big bankers in New York said to me 
recently in discussing plans for the development of their business, "What 
is going to happen to the world when forty million people are thrown 
again into peaceful pursuits?" Believe me, I have been giving serious 
thought to that question ever since. For instance, I understand that it 
will take over a year, according to the present plans, for the British to 
demobilize their armies. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but I 
imagine they have given careful thought to that point because we realize 
they cannot demobilize armies of that kind in a minute. The head of a 
twenty million dollar corporation six months ago said to me, "Knoeppel, 
we want to devise some plan for bringing our workers into closer harmony 
with this business. What do you think about it?" I said, *'It would have to 
be looked into pretty carefully." He said, "We have got to do something in 
the line of stock participation, because if we do not, they are going to reach 
up and take it." 

The eight-hour day is coming; you can make up your mind that labor 
is going to have more profits of industry than they have ever had before. 
You can make up your mind it is going to have a say in industry with 
regard to conditions under which it will work. We are going to have 
women with us in industry and they are going to have a say with regard 
to conditions under which they will work. Now, we may as well recognize 
this. I have been accused of being a Bolshevik. Take it for what it is 
worth. If it is Bolshevikism, all right ; it is coming. Serious men realize 
it. I heard a very intelligent workman say, "Boys, this war is showing us 
one thing, and that is the strength of labor. We are going to have a say 
about what is going to be done with labor. You remember Mr. Schwab 
said recently that in the future labor was going to dominate the situa- 
tion. He might be considered a radical, but you would not call Charles E. 
Hughes a radical, and he has expressed much the same view. Now, what 
is the reason behind that fact? That labor is going to have a say, that 
labor is going to get more money ; that labor is going to have an eight- 
hour day if it wants it. 

In closing I will read an article in a fiction magazine called "Popular," 
which very few read, which expresses the thought in mind. 

A POST-BELLUM PROPHECY 
By C. E. Knoeppel 
One of these mornings, the World will wake to the blessed realiza- 
tion that this great war is over. Men will march home from the various 
fronts. Factories will stop grinding out instruments of death and 
destruction and will begin making products for sale. Reconstruction 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 219 



will begin, and just as sure as fate, a commercial warfare will follow 
this armed clash. 

Problems of adjustment? There will be hundreds of them. Is there 
one greater than all the others? Yes, the problem of labor adjustment. 

In a recent issue of The Popular Magazine there is an excellent 
article 'They Came Back," by F. Britten Austin, which so eloquently out- 
lines the solution of this problem that I deemed it futile to put my thoughts 
in my own words and will let parts of the article in question do it for me. 
The place is England; the time sometime after the war; the men 
have come back, among them being Captain Hathaway, son of Sir Thomas 
Hathaway, head of some large factories. Here are the essentials of the 
story : 

"Captain Hathaway had been toying with a match on the tablecloth. 
He looked up, quiet and thoughtful, his face clean cut and aristocratic by 
contrast with the heavy opulence of his sire. 

"You don't anticipate labor trouble, then, father?'* 

Sir Thomas Hathaway laughed — a guffaw — and crashed his hand on 
the table. 

"Labor troubles, my boy! You need have no fear on that score. 
We're going to teach labor a lesson. We haven't built up our reserve for 
nothing — not only ourselves, but all the houses in the trade. For long 
enough we've been dictated to by labor, and now, by Heaven, we're going 
to crush it ! Do you know what's coming, my boy ? Have you thought about 
it? There's going to be the biggest flood of labor chucked on the market 
that the world has ever known. All of 'em fightin' — fightin* for jobs ! And 
the trade, Harry, my boy, is going to lock out ! We've closed down now, and 
we shan't open again till our own good time. How long d'you think the union 
funds'll last? We'll bust 'em — bust 'em forever and a day. And when 
we open our shops again to labor it'll be on our own terms. Here, fill up, 
gentlemen ; I can vouch for this wine. Cost a sinful price, it did. We'll 
bust 'em, my lad, so that never again in our time shall we hear a word 
of labor trouble." He gulped down the glassful of his sinfully costly wine. 
A little later at a meting of the company directors. Sir Thomas Hath- 
away talked as follows : 

"Now, gentlemen," continued the retiring chief, "before I sit down 
I should like to give you some account of my stewardship. I think we all 
of us perceived in the circumstances of the present time an opportunity 
to settle, once and for all, our score with labor. That opportunity has not 
been neglected. All the factories owned by us, in agreement with the 
other houses in the trade, which have most loyally backed our action, 
have been shut down. The date of their reopening has not yet been 
decided upon, but I may tell you this, gentlemen — the trade union with 
which we have had so much trouble in the past is bankrupt. We are 
entitled to industrial peace on our own terms, but the terms which we 
have offered and which were not ungenerous in circumstances after safe- 
guarding our interests, have been stubbornly rejected by the men's 
leader — the man Swain. This left us no altei-native but to put on the 
screw, and we have replied by serving notices of ejection on all those of 
our ex-employees who* are behind in theii- rent. I think you will agree 



22 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

with me that in this we have the fullest justice on our side. (Hear, hear!) 
And now, gentlemen, I retire from my managing directorship and make 
way for my son in the fullest confidence that he will maintain and extend 
the great and honorable traditions of this business." 

Captain Hathaway stood up. His face was strangely pale and set. 

"Gentlemen, you have listened to my father's remarks. They re- 
present accurately the theory of our past relationship between ourselves 
and employees. (Hear, hear!) But, gentlemen, I want to bring home to 
you that it is a theory quite impossible to maintain at the present day. 
In accepting the leadership of this house I am fully conscious of my 
responsibilities — responsibilities not only to you who have financial in- 
terests in the business, but to those who live by the employment we offer 
them and to the state which makes it possible for them to work and for 
ourselves to derive benefit from that work. From this day, gentlemen, 
and for so long as I am head of this firm, our relations with our employes 
are on a different basis. The factories will reopen tomorrow — at the old 
trade-union rates, excepting where the new rates I have offered to the 
men are more remunerative to them. The policy of the firm is reversed." 

Captain Hathaway, in all his experience of war, had never felt the 
need of all his courage so much as in making this announcement, which, to 
himself sounded brutally bald. 

One of the directors rose, hanging nervously upon the table with his 
fist and shaking with rage. 

**By Heaven!" he said. "I never thought Tom Hathaway's boy would 
be a traitor." 

Sir Thomas Hathaway half rose and sat down again, looking as 
though he were going to faint. 

Another of the directors stood up. 

"Has our new managing director any other, harmless little proposals 
to make?" he asked in bitter sarcasm. 

"Yes," replied Captain Hathaway. "I propose to take powers to 
create a new deferred stock which will rank for dividend after the ordin- 
ary stock has received eight per cent, but which will in all circumstances 
carry a right to vote on the board, and this stock will be vested in the 
representatives of our employees chosen by them." 

"It will never be agreed to by the men," cried a voice. 

"It is agreed to already by the men's representatives," replied the 
new chief, feeling the coolness of courage return to him as once when he 
had faced the mob of Germans. 

The wealthiest of the directors, a man associated with other houses 
in the trade, rose in his turn. 

"I warn you, Hathaway, that I shall dispose of my interests in this 
business, and I'm going to fight you to the last shilling. You'll be broke 
in a year." 

"All of us!" All of us!" came a chorus of approval. "We'll all fight! 
This is sheer madness!" 

"Fight, if you will, gentlemen," said Hathaway calmly. "It won't pay 
you. I haven't been idle these three months. I may tell you that I have 
contracts in my pocket that will keep us going for many months to come — 



LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 221 

more than a year. The whole world is shrieking for goods, and Germany 
is supplying them — capturing your markets while you commit suicide in 
trying to get the better of labor. In these last months I have established 
agents all over the world, and I've got the orders. I know what the other 
houses have got; I know what's open to you. You can't fight us. But 
you'll be taken over by the government if your obstinacy continues this 
unworthy industrial strife." , 

There was a silence of vague-headed, angry old men who did not 
quite know what to say. 

"And now, gentlemen," continued Hathaway, "let me plead for a bet- 
ter spirit. That great mass of human beings you coldly call 'labor' fought 
for England just as I fought for England, just as thousands of our own 
class fought. We've been together in the trenches year in year out, and 
we've learned to know each other, not as hostile abstractions, but as liv- 
ing men, good men the most of us. We learned all sorts of things we 
didn't realize before the war, but most of all we learned, and when I say 
we, I mean your sons as well, that we're all Englishmen and that we all 
have to play the game and stick together — officer and man. D'you think 
I, who have watched over the comfort of my men, taught them, led them 
into danger, and seen them unafraid, who have hungered with them, 
thirsted with them, gloried in them for these last long years — d'you think 
I can coldly condemn those men and their wives and children to starvation 
now? D'you think I can treat them as an enemy? I can't. And the men 
who have been proud of us, their officers, d'you think they haven't learned 
the value of leadership? They have, but not the leadership of a slave 
master. In the long, bitter years of strife those men have won for them- 
selves, a freedom of soul which is the life force of a free empire. Class 
hatred ! It has vanished as between officer and man. We're all English- 
men together, and we're going to work share and share alike in the new 
England that, share and share alike, we fought for!" 

He flung open the door behind him. 

"Here, gentlemen, is Jim Swain, the leader of your work people in 
their time of trouble. He saved my life twice — once in the trenches and 
got a D.C.M. when he ought to have had the V.C., and again today when he 
set a seal of comradeship between the managing director and the em- 
ployees of Hathaway's. Together he and I and those we represent are 
going to make our patch of England worth the lives that were spent to 
save it." 

"The ex-soldier took a step forward. 

"I should just like to say this, sirs: we men know what it is to have 
good officers, and we've never let 'em down. We've come back, officers and 
men, and officers like Captain Hathaway will always find their men will 
work for them as they used to fight — for officers like him make us feel 
the old country is worth working for, as it was worth fighting for. We've 
learned to play the game, and we'll play it so long as we have fair play. 
The British soldier has learned to die rathei* than surrender, and the 
British soldier is just the British workingman." 

Is any further comment necessary ? 



222 LABOR PROBLEMS UNDER WAR CONDITIONS 

That is in a fiction magazine. I wonder if there is so much fiction in 
it. The same thing applies to us ! Our men are coming back, worker and 
foreman, your son and my son, when the war is over. There is going to 
be a get-together, but it is not going to come easy. There are radical labor 
leaders. Yes, but there are autocratic managers also, and it is those two 
classes that are likely to have trouble unless the industrial engineer steps 
in. The industrial engineer is a co-ordinator, having an opportunity to 
study both sides, the worker's side and employer's side, and can bring 
together the radical labor leader and the autocratic manager. 

The Conference then adjourned. 



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